Directory_and_Chronicle_1936 — Page 384

A4

CHINA

turned to the Tibetan Capital. The tripartite conference at Simla in 1914 to determine the status of Tibet and delimit the boundaries ended in failure, no agreement being arrival at. The Dalai Lama visited Peiping in 1921 and was received in audience by President Hsu Shih-chang.

FOREIGN TRADE IN 1924.

In his review of the trade for 1934, Mr. H. G. MacEwan, the officiating Statistical Secretary of the Chinese Maritime Customs, writes:—

VALUE OF TRADE

The two tables that follow 'show, respectively, the value of China's foreign trade for the years 1930 to 1934 as published in the Returns (the figures, where necessary, being reduced to terms of the new Chinese silver dollar currency introduced in 1933) and the value of that trade for the same four years after deduction of the figures for the Manchurian account with foreign countries during the years 1930 to 1932. In explanation of the necessity for. giving these two separate tables, it may be as well to repeat here that it was during the latter year that China lost control of the section of her foreign trade conducted through the ports in Manchuria, including the great port of Dairen in that part of Manchuria known as the Kwangtung Leased Territory. The first table, therefore, is a record of the whole value of the foreign trade con- trolled by the National Government during the years in question, while the second table gives comparable data for a study of the trend of trade in the portion of China now actually controlled by the Government.

·

I.-VALUE OF THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA, 1930-1934

1930

1931

1932

Million $ Million $ Million $

1933

1934

Million $ Million $

Net Imports Exports

2,041

2,234

1,634

1,345

1,030

1,394

1,416

768

612

535

Total

3,435

3,650

2,402

1,957****

1,565

Excess of Imports 647

818

866

733

495

II.-VALUE OF THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA LESS THE

MANCHURIAN TRADE WITH ABROAD, 1930-1934

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

Million $ Million $ Million $ Million $ Million $

Net Imports

1.723

2,002

1,524

1,345

1,030

Exports -

944

915

569

612

535

Total

2,667

2,917

2,093

1,957

1,565

Excess of Imports · 779

-

1,087

955

733

495

At the end of the Great War, as is well known, there was a widespread shortage of foodstuffs and raw materials such as China supplies, and, because of this shortage, world production started to increase. This increase in production was accompanied by a growth in prosperity, culminating after certain vicissitudes, in the boom years for international commerce of 1925 to 1929, after which came the downward trend (due, in part, to the very growth in production that was the original cause of the unusual prosperity) leading to the greatest depression in trade that the world has ever known. In this connexion, it is generally held that the depression did not begin to affect China until the end of 1931 or the beginning of 1932. However that may be, it

can be seen that the decline which has taken place since 1929 is sufficiently serious, and, even if it be acknowledged that present comparisons are apt to