Directory_and_Chronicle_1940 — Page 807

CANTON

A423

of the export trade abroad, 8,400 metric tons, being shipped as against 3.200 metric tons the previous year. This large increase was chiefly caused by the ore produced in South Kiangsi finding its outlet to the sea through Canton instead of through Kiukiang.. The year opened with the price, though high, still on the downward grade, reaching its lowest point in May, then rising again until the begining of October when it sagged. The closing of the Pearl River in mid-October caused a sharp rise, and thereafter prices fluctuated until the end of the year. The ore was mostly shipped to Hongkong for sale, a considerable proportion being bartered to a German combine.. Wood oil shipments from Central China were responsible for the rise in the export figure from 64,000 to 326,000 quintals. The cow hide trade was unsatisfactory, prices dropping sharply, but business in buffalo hides was more or less normal. The feather trade was poor, due to air raids and exchange control, while prices fell. Cassia lignea suffered severely in 1938, and during the four summer months its movement was prohibited by the authorities. The export of straw mats declined sharply, but mattings remained more normal. Leaf tobacco ex- ports were favourably affected through no longer being controlled by a mono- poly but suffered from the exchange control. Leading commodities not pro- duced in this area which figure in the export statistics, having arrived from Central China, include bristles, egg products, pig intestines, goat skins. nutgalls and ramie. Imports of foreign rice increased by nearly 50 per cent, and there was a slight improvement in foreign wheat flour: Domestic wheat flour dropped to under 30 per cent of its 1937 figure. Air raids and the blowing-up of the plants before the Japanese advance rended most industrial undertaking derelict at the end of the year.

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There was a considerable decrease in all classes of shipping due to the absence of Chinese-flag coastal vessels. the periodical closing of the Pearl River, and the adverse effects of hostilities generally. Total tonnage entered and cleared for the year was 3,613,827 tons as compared with 6,581,701 tons in 1937. Both the Canton-Hankow and Canton-Kowloon Railways suffered severely from air raids. Wongsha Station, the Canton terminus of the former, was one of the main objectives of hostile aircraft and was finally completely destroyed on the 23rd, October, 1938. Motor-trucks were extensively used for the carrying of cargo between Central China and Kowloon, and road traffic was very heavy up to the time of the invasion of South China. Commercial air service with Canton was suspended throughout the year. The Post Office suspended operations in mid-October, and the head office was gutted' by fire on the 23rd, October, 1938. A limited mail service was resumed on the 27th, December, 1938, mails being carried either by overland "couriers or by. Japanese transport plying between Canton and Macao..

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