Directory_and_Chronicle_1940 — Page 537

SHANGHAI

A159

and there are no empty flats or houses to be seen in these areas. In a word, all trades admit a profitable year in spite of the depression, the uncertainty of the future, the drop in exchange, and the numberous other tribulations which are besetting the local community.

Increased purchases of rice and paddy from French Indo-China were made during the year at the expense of wheat from Australia. The decline witnessed in the export of cereals and cereal products was almost entirely due to reduced shipments of cotton seed-cake, bran, and rice and paddy, mostly for Japan, Formosa and the Kwantung Leased Territory. The local prices of rice and wheat remained steady throughout the year. In some of the districts in Kwangtung farmers were ordered to grow rice and cereals in place of tobacco. In Szechwan the crop was reported to be excellent, with a total estimated to be one-third more than that of the previous year.

China being one of the principal wolfram producing countries, the recent Sino-Japanese hostilities caused something like a panic in the wolfram market, and the price of this mineral product increased by leaps and bounds. During 1938 the Kailan Mining Administration produced some 5,200,000 tons of coal, which were annouced to be distributed as follows: for local demand and for Shanghai 1.5 million tons each, 500,000 tons among Tientsin, Hongkong, and the Administration itself, and the balance for export to Japan. To relieve anxiety over the salt shortage caused by the extension of hostilities to producing districts along the coast, the Szechwan Salt Asministration has been instructed to rush measures for increasing production in that province. Over 200 applications for licences for exploitation of various mines in many provinces were granted by the Government during the year.

The second half-year of 1938 saw a rapid recovery in Shanghai's industry of all types in the western district, where numerous temporary wooden build- ings were in course of construction for the accommodation of factories formerly having large plants in Chapei and Nantao. Chinese industrial losses in the Settlement areas north of Soochow Creek as a result of the hostilities were reported to amount to some 900 factories destroyed and 1,000 looted or damaged, but no complete statement regarding losses in the whole Shanghai area has yet been available. Besides some 150 to 160 factories which were removed from the war area around Shanghai to places as far as Yunnanfu, a large number of factories in the south-western provinces were being established by the Chinese industrialists from abroad as well as from Shanghai.

During the year a further decline was recorded in overseas, coastal, and inland shipping as compared with 1937. In overseas shipping totals of the number of vessels and of tonnage for 1938 showed but slight variation from the figures recorded for the previous year, but the blockade of the China coast and the closing to traffic of the Yangtze River and other shipping routes had the effect of curtailing activities in the coastal shipping of this port to such an extent that the totals for 1938 came to less than one-half of those for 1937, while the totals for 1937 and 1938 put together were only a little larger than those for 1936. In both the above categories of shipping Great Britain easily maintained her trading position. Brisk coast trade with Canton continued for the greater part of the year until October, when its place was taken by Swatow. Compared with the previous year, the demand for tonnage in 1938 was greater in the case of coast and river shipping, but the demand for ocean tonnage showed a decline. On account of the low rate of exchange, rates of freight for coast and river shipping were increased and many rates in dollars were quoted in foreign currency. The Nisshin Kisen Kaisha spared no efforts in extending its coastal and inland navigation business. With the joint support of several Japanese steamship companies, it was expected to be able to regain its old status very soon.

There was no outflow of treasure during the year. Gold to the value of G.U. 3.5 million was imported into Shanghai, chiefly from Hongkong. The T.T. rates for sterling quoted during the year were 1s. 2d. highest and 7s. 3d