Directory_and_Chronicle_1936 — Page 391

CHINA

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TRANSPACIFIC FreighTS

Only a few minor changes were made in freight rates from China to ports on the Pacific Coast during 1934, the 1933 tariff remaining in force for many of the export commodities. A few of the principal items may be specified as follows, contracts rates for deliveries on the coast being quoted in each case (per 40 cubic feet unless otherwise stated): general cargo, U.S. $15.50 W/M; brassware, chinaware, and cotton goods, U.S. $10.25; cotton waste,, U.S. $3.50; human hair, U.S. $15.25; human hair (combings, stumps or waste), U.S. $11; lace and linen goods, U.S. $15.50; skins in bales, U.S. $8; skins in cases, U.S. $12; tea, U.S. $4; nutgalls in bags, U.S. $12 per 2,000 pounds; cotton-seed oil in bulk (added to the tariff in 1934), U.S. $4 per 2,000 pounds; raw silk, U.S. $3 per 100 pounds; ground nut oil in bulk, U.S. $4 per 2,000 pounds; groundnuts in shell, U.S. $3 per 2,000 pounds, and groundnut kernels in bags, U.S. $3.50 per 2,000 pounds. The rate for sesamum seed was an "open" one during most of the year, but was fixed at U.S. $3.50 per 2,000 pounds' in December. The fixed rate for wood oil in bulk, U.S. $6 per 2,000 pounds, was temporarily suspended in August.

RAILWAYS

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Of all the constructive work now being undertaken by way of reorganising this country internally against a return of more prosperous times, none is of more importance and none (not even the great strides being made in the industrialisation of the country) is more impressive than the rapid develop- ment of China's lines of communication,, especially railways, roads, airways, wireless telegraphy, and long-distance telephony. In the matter of railways a long period of comparative inactivity came to an end a few years ago, as soon, in fact, as a greater degree of political stability began to be achieved, and in each of the recent issues of these annual trade reports it has been possible since then to record definite progress from year to year. During the twelve months now under review, work on the Canton-Hankow Railway proceeded more rapidly than was expected; and all of the uncompleted sections of the line are now under construction. There is every reason to hope that this most important and nearly forty-year-old project will be finished by 1936. Success has also been met with in the case of the Lung-Hai Railway extension scheme, the main line having been completed and tested as far as Sian, the capital of Shensi province, in December. Considerable progress was also made towards providing adequate harbour facilities at the coastal terminus of this line at Lienyunkiang on Haichow Bay, including the construction of a branch line from Taierchwang to Chaochwang. Work was commenced on the building. of the Yushan-Pingsiang section, of the Chekiang Kiangsi-Hunan Railway.' The line from Hangchow to Yushan was completed in 1933, and, as this new section will carry it forward via Nanchang, the capital of Kiangsi, to Ping- siang, where rail connexion to Chuchow on the Canton-Hankow line is already in being, the economic importance of the whole project to the agricultural, mining, and industrial interests of the area traversed can hardly be exaggerat- ed. The completion of this line even as far as Nanchang, where it will connect with the Kiukiang-Nanchang Railway, will link up the well-known Yangtze port of Kiukiang with Shanghai by rail. What may be considered one of the most important new projects of the year arose out of the decision to enlarge the Wuhu-Chapu Light Railway scheme into an undertaking, entrusted to the Kiangnan Railway Company, to build a main line from Nanking to Chaoan, a place in the very south-western corner of Fukien near the Kwangtung border, through Wuhu (Anhwei province), Sunchiapu (Anhwei province), Kiangshan (Chekiang province), and Yenping (Fukien province). The line has been styled the Nanking-Chaoan Railway, and later, it is to be extended to Canton. The second section of it. from Wuhu to Sunchiapu, has been completed, and the first section, from Nanking to Wuhu, almost completed. It was only in 1933 that the treaty port of Wuhu was linked up with Shanghai by motor highway, and now in the course of a few months it will also find

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