Directory_and_Chronicle_1939 — Page 748

A366

YOCHOW

are either transnipped at Hankow or re-exported at Shanghai, and thus appear as domestic exports in the statistics for the port of Yochow. The value of coastwise imports of Chinese merchandise amounted to $12.7 million as against $10 million, and of coastwise exports to $15.2 million as compared with $13.8 million during 1936: Under domestic imports, a decline was recorded under all kinds of cotton piece goods except naukeens. During recent years the demand for foreign piece goods has greatly declined as a result of marked improvement in the quality of native products and their moderate price. Salt from Haichow amounted to 1,236,672 quintals valued at $6.5 million, Yochow having long been the distributing centre for this commodity to the neighbouring districts. A substantial increase was seen in the importation of cigarettes, most of which were shipped from Changteh to Western Hunan and Kweichow. The principal staple domestic export was wood oil, the shipment of which advanced from 140,564 quintals valued at $11,6 million in 1936 to 164,357 quintals valued at $13.5 million in 1937, owing in part to the large stocks left over from excellent crops harvested in 1936. The trade in wood oil was badly hit during the second half of the year by the Sino-Japanese hostilities and the consequent disrup- tion of routes of transportation. Rainie from Yuenkiang was another prominent export, although the quantity declined to 22,737 quintals as compared with 35,403 quintals in 1936, fighting prevailing on the Lower Yangtze when the season's crop of ramie was put on the market. Of rice and wheat, exports to Hankow of the former amounted to 25,557 quintals as against 5,113 quintals in 1936 and of the latter to 15,652 quintals as compared with 1,632 quintal. Hunan is one of the large rice- producing areas of China, a fact which has largely contributed to the wealth of the Tungting Lake districts. Weather conditions were favourable during the year, and although the lower regions around the Tungting Lake were flooded during the summer, the damage to crops was not serious. The extensive import of foreign rice into the province of Kwangtung aroused the interest of rice merchants, and suitable measures were devised to relieve the shortage in Kwangtung by the surplus in the Yangtze Valley.

The alcohol factory at Yuenkiang started to operate in the spring, its maximum output being estimated at some 2 million litres per annum. The China Vegetable Oil Corporation has a branch factory under construction at Tehshan some 15 li from Changteh, while the establishment of a cotton mill has been postponed until more propitious times.

DIRECTORY

州岳

CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME---

Commissioner-W. R. Myers

Fu 怡

E Wo

JARDINE, MATHESON & Co., LTD., Mer-

chants---

Chen Sung Tsun, agent

Pt CHI STEAMSHIP Co.-Cable Ad:

0361

Hong Sui Dong, agent

會初復美大 Ta me fuh jso wei

REFORMED CHURCH MISSION Yochow

―

City; Cable Ad: Evrechurch

Rev. E. A. Beck

John D. Beck and Wife (On

furlough)

Rev. & Mrs. Sterling W. Whitener Miss G. B. Hoy, secretary Miss A. E. Traub (On furlough) Miss M. E. Myers

Rev. & Mrs. T. F. Hilgeman (On

furlough)