Directory_and_Chronicle_1935 — Page 391

CHINA

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any rate decreasing. The "Flag" table for the combined foreign and domestic trade tonnage figures does not show any changes in the positions taken by the leaders in the shipping field: British-flag vessels took first place as usual with an aggregate of 58.2 million tons and a 42.38 per cent, share of the whole tonnage; the Chinese flag easily retained second place with 37.3 million tons and a 27.12 share; Japan again took third place with 20.2 million tons (a slight increase of her previous year's aggregate tonnage) and a 14.63 share: and these three leaders were followed by Norway with 5.8 million tons and the United States of America with 5.4 million tons.

It will be gathered from what has been written on the export section of China's trade with foreign countries that many staples were in demand only at extremely competitive prices, although shipped in many instances in much larger quantities than during the previous year. As freight charges have a considerable influence on landed costs abroad, the "Conference" lines endeavoured to encourage shipments by reducing the rates of such products as might have had difficulty in getting marketed without some freight-rate concessions. The total shipments from Shanghai by all "Conference" lines amounted to 188,080 tons as against 156,421 tons in 1932.

OTHER COMMUNICATIONS.

There are now 10,415 kilometres of highway open to motor traffic in Honan, Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, Anhwei, Chekiang and Kiangsu, -4,084 kilometres are sur- faced roads and 6,331 kilometres are mud roads. Looking back three or four years ago, it must be a continual astonishment to realise, for instance, that except for two sinall gaps shortly to be closed, it would now be possible to travel by motor-car all the way from Shanghai via Nanchang and Changsha to distant Changteh, in the province of Hunan, or that by crossing the Yangtze near Wuhu, it would be possible to move (except for two very short gaps) into the provinces of Honan and Hupeh as far as Shasi and Laohokow. Progress has been as great in most of the provinces not already mentioned. On the northern coast-line, such well known places as Weihsien, Chefoo, Weihaiwei, and Tsingtao are now all connected up by motor highways. On the southern coast-line there is a road, continuous except for one estuary, from Pakhoi to the Canton delta; the Canton Swatow highway was completed during the year under review; and starting from a point about a hundred miles south of Amoy, there is another coastal road, complete except for a few bridges, that now leads past that port to Foochow.

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In the matter of railways, some very important reconditioning and new con- structional work is in progress. The Hang-Kiang Railway was completed in November, allowing of travel by rail from Shanghai in the province of Kiangsu, right across the province of Chekiang to Yushan in the province of Kiangsi, a very signifi-

only part of a wider scheme to connect Chekiang with Hunan via the capital city of Kiangsi (Nanchang); the whole line being designated the Chekiang-Kiangsi-Hunan Railway Work on the extension of the Lung-Hai Railway to Shensi and Kansu was also pushed forward rapidly, and before the end of the year the road-bed had been laid to a point more than half-way between the eastern border of Shensi and Sian, the capital of that province. Of all the railway undertakings, perhaps the most important is the work now actively going forward on the closing of the last gap on the Canton- Hankow line, the completion of which will liuk Canton on the southern coast-line with Peiping in the extreme north of the country. Some three years' more work will be required, however, before this end can be achieved. The Nanking-Pukow train- ferry service was inaugurated on October 22 of the year under review, providing transportation across the Yangtze for passenger and goods trains running a "through" schedule between Shanghai and Tientsin.⠀

cant step forward in the country's lines of comm This railroad, however, is

Further developments were witnessed in the field of commercial aviation. Two air-mail and passenger services are operated under the direction of the Ministry of Communications; the China National Aviation Corporation and the Eurasia Aviation. Corporation. The first of these corporations at present mainly serves the Yangtze Valley ports and the coastal ports from Shanghai northward to Peiping and southward to Canton. During the year the planes of this corporation covered 901,873 miles; the Yangtze Valley service was extended from Chungking to Chengtu, the capital of Szechwan Province; and a new airway service from Shanghai to Canton via Wenchow, Foochow, Amoy, and Swatow was established. The Eurasia Corporation, as its name implies, is intended to connect Slianghai by air with Europe, the proposed route being