Directory_and_Chronicle_1941 — Page 249

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

CHINA

A15

all the railways in that part of the country, including the Peiping-Shanhai- kwan Railway, the Peiping-Suiyuan Railway, the Kiao-Tsi Railway, the Shih- kiachwang-Taiyuan Railway, and sections of the Peiping-Hankow, the Tientsin- Pukow, and the Lung-Hai Railways. Half of the actual capital of $300,000,000 was subscribed by the North China Development Company in kind, i.e., rail- ways seized by the Japanese, while of the other half the South Manchuria Railway Company subscribed $120,000,000 and the "Peking Provisional Gov- ernment $30,000,000. In Central China the Central China Railway Company was organised in May to operate all the railways in the Lower Yangtze delta, including the Shanghai-Nanking Railway, the Shanghai-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway, the Soochow-Kashing Railway, and the Nanking-Wuhu Railway. Capitalised at $50,000,000, this concern, a subsidiary of the Central China Development Company, was organised under the Nanking regime, the Central China Development Company subscribing half of the capital in kind, i.e., rail- ways in Central China seized by the Japanese; the other half, payable in cash, being subscribed-$10,000,000 by the

the "Nanking Reformed Government, $6,500,000 by the Central China Development Company, and $8,500,000 by the general public. However, only one-fourth of the cash payment was made at the time of the company's establishment. On the 2nd May the British Ambas- sador in Tokyo drew the attention of the Foreign Office to the establishment of the Central China Railway Company to take over these railways, etc., and pointed out that, as a large amount of British capital was invested in them, the British Government could not acquiesce in their acquisition by Japanese interests.

With China's door becoming more tightly closed towards the east, it became imperative that measures be adopted for the development of the western and south-western provinces and for the improvement of communications giving egress and ingress westwards. Towards this end rapid progress was made in the industrial development of the provinces of Szechwan, Yunnan, Kweichow, and Kwangsi, the National Government appropriating large funds, which were augmented further by private subscription. The Farm Credit Bureau of the Ministry of Finance continued its activities, assisting in the establishment of rural banks, the setting up of public granaries, and the making of loans to loans to farmers for the planting of cotton, improvement of sericulture, sugar cane, wood oil, oranges and sesamum seed in the provinces of Szechwan, Kwangtung, Anhwei, Hunan and Shensi, nor was improvement in irrigation overlooked. The full epic of China's adaptation to events will in due course become known and will be accounted prodigious considered not only in the light of the sustenance and care given to thousands made destitute by war and the development of untouched resources of wealth, but perhaps above all in the superhuman efforts made to open, and to keep open, communications by high- way, by rail and by air.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1941 — Page 249

Comments

Private Research Note