A12
CHINA
The following are the import statistics for rolling-stock, and for such rail- way materials as are specifically quoted as such in the Returns, during the past three years:
1937.
1938...
1939.
Quantity.
Value.
St. $
St. $
Quantity. Valuc. Quantity. Value.
St. $
Crossings & Turntables
Rails
for Railways ... Quintals
Quintals
18,974 693,960
913,311 1,3608,276
1,781 97,945
102,843
153
13,639
2,147,835
108,676
2,913,874
Locomotives & Tenders
6,263,686
346,584
1,027,845
Railway Carriages &
Wagons
2,744,425
1,697,941
1,346,922
Railway Materials, n.o.r
4,643,362
2,464,138
1,992,843
Railway Sleepers Pieces 1,300,895 4,547,974
524,445
996,502
189,962 614,521
Total
32,501,674
7,755,843
7,909,644
COMMERCIAL AVIATION
On the outbreak of hostilities the air services operating from Peiping and Shanghai were the first to be suspended, while those operating in the South- west, North-west, Central and South China continued to offer increased trans- portation facilities. On the occupation of the Wu-Han cities, services on all these lines were temporarily suspended, but not long thereafter were resumed one after another. În addition to the air lines orginally operating in "Free China," the following new lines commenced operations in 1938:-
(1) The Chungking-Hongkong line, with an intermediate stop at Kwei- lin, covering a distance of 1,157 kilometres, was inaugurated at the close of 1937, with the frequency of departures being changed to twice or three times weekly in 1938.
(2) The Chungking-Kunming line of 755 kilometres resumed operations
after a period of suspension on the 1st August 1938.
(3) The Chungking-Kiating line, with two intermediate stops at Luchow and Suifu, covers a distance of 351 kilometres and was opened on 16th May 1938.
(4) The Chungking-Kweilin line of 760 kilometres was started in
December 1938.
(5) The Chengtu-Hanoi line, covering a distance of 1,460 kilometres,
inaugurated a through service in November 1938.
(6) The Kunming-Kweilin line, covering a distance of 760 kilometres,
was opened in December 1938.
In March 1939 an airplane of the Imperial Airways successfully made a test flight from Rangoon in Burma to Kunming, and at the same time the China National Aviation Corporation planes made three successful flights from Chungking to Rangoon.
On the 5th December 1939 the Chungking-Moscow line was formally inau- gurated. The entire length, to be covered in four days, in divided into three sections, namely, Chungking-Hami, Hami-Alamutu, and Alamutu-Moscow.
CONDITIONS IN 1939
Apart from the tragedy of continued Sino-Japanese hostilities, with their resultant loss of life and material damage, particulars of which latter, even if ever fully available, will take some years to estimate and decades to recover from, it is but natural that main interest from the economic viewpoint should centre around Japanese efforts to extend their influence in the occupied areas. The multifarious measures adopted, embracing the compulsory circulation of currency, tariff revision, the control of railways, shipping, etc., are to a con-.
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