Directory_and_Chronicle_1939 — Page 388

A10

CHINA

TRANSPACIFIC FREIGHTS

During the year rates of freight on a number of articles from China to ports on the Pacific coast were subjected to two increases, amounting approximately to 15 per cent on each occasion. Following the outbreak of Sino-Ja

Japanese hostilities, direct sailings from Shanghai to Pacific coast ports, with but one exception, were entirely suspended until the close of the year. A certain amount of cargo was, nevertheless, moved during this period, being forwarded to Hong- kong or Kobe for transhipment there to ocean carriers loading for the Pacific coast. The total quantity was, however, very small in comparison with that which had been shipped direct during the first seven months of the year.

FREIGHTS VIA SUEZ A

"

.

All Conference rates of freight per ton by the Suez route were increased by 10 per cent on the 18th February 1937 with the exception of rates on silks, oils, bristles, and removals (household effects). A further increase was made on a number of commodities on the 30th September 1937, in addition to which on the same date the Conference decided that all cargo (except oils in bulk) loaded at Shanghai, or any temporary loading place in the neighbourhood of Shanghai, should pay a 10 per cent surcharge. The result has been that the increase dur ing 1937 vary considerably on different classes of commodities, the principal increase per ton being as follows: general cargo, 90s. to 110s.; hides, 77s. to 100s.; raw cotton, 66s. to 72s. 6d. ; cotton waste, 42s. to 50s; tobacco, 66s. to 72s. ed.; cotton lace, 114s. (or 2 per cent) to 120s. (or 2 per cent); antimony regulus, 46s. to 65s.; antimony oxide, 66s. to 90s.; antimony, crude, 46s. to 65s.; beans, 36%. to 55s.; cotton seed-cake, 42s. 6d. to 60s.; feathers, 81s. to 100s. ; nutgalls. 100s. to 105s.; wood oil, in bulk 96s. to 107s,; sesamum seed, 48s. to 60s.; skins and furs, 150s. to 192s. 6d. The base rate on tea was maintained at 70s. The "open" rate on groundnut kernels fluctuated throughout the year, followed proportionately. The rates of freight on raw silk were maintained.

·

·

RAILWAYS

Following the completion and the opening to through traffic.. on the 1st September 1936 of the Canton-Hankow Railway, a survey of the river-bed at Hankow and an examination of the selected location of the contemplated bridge over the Yangtze River, to connect the Canton-Hankow and Hankow-Peiping Railways, was carried out in the spring of 1937. In the month of August the. Canton-Hankow Railway was linked up with the Canton-Kowloon Railway by a loop line, and in spite of frequent bombings, both these lines continued to function with minor interruption. Survey work, also. on the projected railway from Shektan, on the Canton-Kowloon Railway, to Meihsien, for which a loan of £3,000,000 was arranged with the British and Chinese Corporation, and which will be some 350 kilometres in length, was commenced' during the year.

West and south-west of the Canton-Hankow Railway are the two projected Railways the Hunan-Kweichow Railway, from Chuchow, on the Canton- Hankow Railway, to Kweiyang, the capital of the province of Kweichow; and the Hunan-Kwangsi Railway, from Hengyang, also on the Canton-Hankow line, to Kweilin, the capital of Kwangsi province. Work was carried steadily along the whole length of the Hunan-Kweichow Railway, which will be 1,010 kilometres in length. More than 300 kilometres of earth-work for the road-bed between Chuchow and Supu was completed, and all bridges and culverts along this section are nearing completion. Foundations for the Tzu River Bridge with a length of over 240 metres, were completed by the middle of April. 80 per cent of the work on the 10 piers of the Siang River Bridge at Siangtan has also been finished. It is hoped that rails will be laid and that trains will be running between Chuchow and Sinhwa by the end of March 1938. It was expected that the whole line would be completed by the end of 1938, but, due to interruption in arrivals of rails and also to the Government's desire to finish the Hunan- Kwangsi Railway first, part of the staff and materials have been transferred to the latter line. Projects and funds for the construction of this Hunan-Kwangsi line having been arranged, construction work commenced on the 10th September. The whole line running from Hengyang, through Kiyang and Tungan, in