Directory_and_Chronicle_1936 — Page 521

TSINGTAO (KIAOCHAU)

A140

and lack of access to rivers or lakes. The Telephone Administration has also been keeping abreast of local development and has undertaken the installa- tion of 400 additional instruments. Last, but by no means least, the greatest care is being given to education. Municipal expenditure in the latter con- nection has doubled in the past two years.

According to a Chinese census, the population has increased by over 18,000 persons during 1933 and now stands at a total of 444,690 inhabitants. The most important development on hand at present is the construction of a new concrete and granite pier in the Great Harbour, a basin reserved for the use of ocean and coastwise steamers. The work was commenced in July, 1932 and, according to the terms of the contract, should be completed in four years.

·

..

TRADE IN 1934.-

The value statistics recorded by the Customs for the trade of the Tsingtao district were as follows: direct foreign imports, 48.5 million dollars as against 70.8 million in the preceding year; coastwise importations of Chinese merchandise, 34.6 million dollars as against 31.1 million; direct exports to foreign countries, 35.3 million dollars as against 41.6 million; and, coastwise exportations of Chinese produce, 58.8 million dollars as against 60.9 million dollars. These figures, of course, do not by any means represent the value of the whole trade of the district, and it should be borne in mind in this connexion that the improvement that has been effected in the through-traffic arrangements on the railway between Shanghai and Tsingtao, made possible by the inauguration of the train-ferry service across the Yangtze from Nanking to Pukow, has been instrumental in attracting even more cargo than before to this particular one of the several methods of transport not under Customs control. Taking the above statistics as they stand, however, it is clear, in the first place, that a decline of over 31 per cent. was registered for the total value of the direct importations from abroad, and that cotton piece goods, raw cotton, timber, sugar, artificial silk yarn, kerosene, and coal were amongst the principal commodities.contributing to the genernl decrease un- der this heading. The direct imports of cotton piece goods, mainly Japanese, were valued at only 4.4 million dollars as against 12.8 million in the preceding year. The market for these goods was obviously influenced by the higher duty rates imposed in 1933 and by the lower rates introduced again in July 1934, imports being noticeably reduced after the higher tariff was enforced and just as noticeably increased under the more favourable tariff rates ruling for most cotton goods during the second half of the year under review. Importations of raw cotton from abroad decline quantitatively from 69,000 to 34,000 quintals and in value from 6.5 million to 2.7 million dollars, chiefly on account of the improvement in the quality and the increase in the production of the Shantung staple. Arrivals of timber were valued at 3.7 million as against 4.4 million dollars. During the second half of the year owing to the success of Customs preven- tive operations there was a noticeable revival in the legitimate trade in foreign sugar, but a slight decline in quantity (from 217,000 to 194,000 quintals) and a proportionately greater decline in value (from 3.8 million to 2 million dollars) was registered by the statistics for the whole year. Only 33,000 kilogrammes of artificial silk yarn were pass- ed through the Customs, as compared with 70,000 kilogrammes in the preceding year and 849,000 kilogrammes in 1932, the rayon weaving industry at Choutsun having been practically killed by the prohibitive nature of the tariff on the yarn and the slump in the price of natural silk. As regards the remaining articles mentioned above as having contributed chiefly to the marked falling-off in the total value of direct foreign imports, kerosene oil declined quantitatively from 46 million to 38.2 million litres and coal from 47,000 to 14,000 metric tons. The principal article exported direct to foreign countries, in order of value, were: groundnuts, $7.1 million; leaf tobacco, $5.1 million; eggs and egg products, $3.2 million; beef, $3.1 million; groundnut oil, $3 million; crude salt, $1.7 million; bristles, $1.1 million; followed by pigs, cotton yarn, ground-nutcake meals, cow hides, coal, raw and waste silk, cigarettes, fly and waste cotton, bone dust, straw braid, fruit, dried chillies, pigs' intestines, and matches. It will be seen that the groundnut is still the most important of the exports to foreign countries. Much that has been said in the preceding paragraph regarding business in the commodity at Weihaiwei applies equally to the year's trade at Tsingtao. The price of kernels, which had dropp- ed to the low level $48.5 a picul at the end of 1933, as compared with an average price for the years 1924-31 of $10 a picul, reached $3.90 a picul at the beginning of the year under review, at which level stock were immobilised and many of the dealers were

*A16