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668

Building materials Cigarettes Electrical materials Machinery. Kerosene oil. Paper.

Railway materials Motor-cars and lorries

value Hk. Tls.

mille,

value Hk. Tls.

gallons

value Hk. Tls.

IQI3

2,444,787 6,209,037 2,322,339 4,650,001 183,984,052 7.169,255

4,317,694 485,182

1919 5,786,924

7,771,947

4,991,811

14,100,439

199,309,753

10,212,652

3,883,239

2,158,998

The sterling value of China's exports for 1919 was 228 % higher than that of the pre-war record year 1913. In the order of their importance the chief articles of export are: silk (representing over 100 million taels), seed oils, bean cake, beans, cereals, raw cotton, skins and hides, seeds and seed cake, eggs, tea, metals, wool and sugar. The tea trade, though slightly better than in 1918, was less than half that of 1913, exports to Russia by sea having practically ceased and shipments to other countries being severely affected by the competition of Indian and Ceylon teas. With a view to stim- ulating the trade, the Chinese Government abolished the export duty, and reduced the likin by half for two years from Oct. 1919. The silk trade reflected the increased purchasing-power of the United States and the growing popularity of silk fabrics in America.

Out of the total of 1 3 1 ,506 piculs exported, the United States took 36,028 in direct shipments, as against 23,772 piculs shipped direct to France, 16,819 to British India, and 2,297 to Great Britain. Of Chinese cotton shipped abroad (1,072,000 piculs), nine-tenths was bought by Japan and the remainder by the United States. These countries were also the principal buyers of China's seed oils, wood oil and skins and hides.

Work of Reference C. A. Middleton Smith, The British in China and Far Eastern Trade.

Waterways. In Dec. 1913 a National Conservancy Bureau was established, under the presidency of the progressive Minister of Commerce, Chang Chien, with Mr. Van der Veen as consulting engineer, to deal with irrigation and river conservancy matters. The conservancy of the Hwai river, with a view to the prevention of floods in Kiangsu and Anhui, received special attention. In July 1914, this river was surveyed by engineers sent to China by the American Red Cross; their investigations were followed by an agree- ment between the American International Corporation and the Chinese Government for a conservancy scheme, to be carried out under the direction of the Grand Canal Improvement Board. As the cost of the proposed work, involving the construction of a great dam and a new subsidiary canal, necessitated the raising of a loan, the scheme was perforce postponed upon the outbreak of the World War, pending facilities for raising the funds required.

Railways. The outbreak of war and the impossibility of raising further foreign loans, resulted in the suspension of several enter- prises, projected and commenced. Several important agreements had been concluded by the Chinese Government in 1913 and 1914 for the construction of new lines ; these were compelled to await the restoration of conditions favourable for financing these undertakings abroad. The* railways for which preliminary or final agreements were thus concluded, included the following:

Tatung to Chengtu (Franco-Belgian capital); approximately 960 m. This line forms part of a general scheme intended to provide through communication between French Indo-China and Kalgan, connecting at Tatung with the Peking-Kalgan railway extension, with the Hukuang system, and with a French line to Yunnanfu.

Yamchow (near Pakhoi) to Yunnanfu, and thence to Chungking (French capital) ; about 1,000 m.

Sinyang to Pukou (British capital). This is the final agreement (Nov. 14 1913) for a concession originally granted in 1898. Length of line, about 275 m.

Shasi to Singyi (British capital), a " construction " contract (Dec. 18 1913) for about 800 m., through Changtefu and Kuei.

Nanking to Hunan (British capital), about 1,000 m. of line, via Ningkuo and Nanchang to Pingsiang.

In addition to these, agreements were made by the Chinese Government with the German and Japanese Governments respec- tively for the construction of a number of railways in Shantung and Manchuria and Mongolia. (In Oct. 1917, the Industrial Bank of Japan issued a loan of 50 million yen for the building of these lines, including two of the ex-German railway concessions in Shantung.) Two other important railway agreements were made by the Chinese Government during the war, namely, one (March 1916) with the Russo-Asiatic Bank, for a Chinese Government railway from Harbin to Aigun, with several branch lines, and another (May 1916), with an American syndicate, for the construction of a number of proposed railways, aggregating 1,100 miles.

Coincident with the Government's adoption of the programme of active construction indicated by these concessions, the policy was definitely adopted of centralizing control of the various provincial railway systems and unifying their accounts and methods of man- agement. A commission was appointed for the purpose in 1913, under the presidency of Tih Kung-Chao (Minister of Communica- tions, 1920) with the assistance of an American adviser. On Jan. I 1915, the unified methods came into operation, with the result that

the annual reports on Chinese Government railways, subsequently published by the Ministry of Communications, afford a compre- hensive statement of the financial and general situation. The follow- ing figures are taken from the Ministry's report for the year ending Dec. 31 1919:

The total length of railway lines in China at the beginning of 1920 was 6,813 m. (10,963 km.), consisting of Government and " Concessioned " railways, as follows:

Government Railways. Km. Km.

In operation 6,027

Operation by construction forces:

Lung Hai 368

Hupeh-Hunan 15 383

Total Government Railways 6,410

Provincial and Private Railways.

Kwangtung 225

Kiukiang-Nanchang 136

Sunning 171

Swatow-Chaochowfu 42

Nanking City. II

Chung Hsing Mining Co 52

Liu Chiang Coal Mine 12

Tayeh Mining Co 30

Ching Hsing Mining Co 15

Kailan Mining Administration .... 16

Taikaokou Mines 29

Tsitsihar City 29

Ma Chiapu Narrow Gauge ..... 5 773

Total subject to control of the Ministry of Com- munications 7,183

Concessioned Railways.

Chinese Eastern 1,722

South Manchurian 1,107

Shantung 451

Yunnan 465

Canton Kowloon (British Section) ... 35 3,780

Total kilometres of railway in China (Miles 6,813) 10,963

Excluding the dependencies (Mongolia, Turkestan and Tibet) China has about 276 sq. m. of territory and 54,000 inhabitants to each mile of railway, as against 40 sq. m. and 8,600 in India.

The Ministry's repdrt showed a surplus of $36,449,392 on the working of the Government lines for the year 1919, an increase of $2,944,272 as compared with 1918. The profits per kilometre earned by the principal lines varied very considerably. The profit per kilometre on the Peking-Mukden railway was $10,234; on tne Peking-Hankow $9,678; on the Cheng-Tai, $4,664; on the Kaifeng- Honan, $3,937; on the Shanghai-Nanking, $3,288, and on the Tientsin-Pukou, $2,848. On Dec. 31 1919 the accumulated surplus of the combined Government lines, as shown by the Ministry's accounts, wasover $63,000, oooof which sum $36,000,000 consisted of additions to property, 21 millions funded debt retired, and cash on hand over 22 millions (of the last amount 2 millions consisted of the notes of the Peking branches of the Bank of Communications and Bank of China, then circulating at about 50% of their face value). The net revenues of railways under the Ministry's control increased by 64% between 1915 and 1919; it is, however, typical of Chinese official finance that, after showing such excellent results, the Government should have been unwilling or unable to purchase the rolling stock required for a section of the Hankow-Canton line (costing $2,000,000) without having recourse to a new foreign loan.

Telegraphs. In 1912 the head office of the Chinese Telegraph Administration, until then located at Shanghai, was transferred to the Telegraphic Bureau of the Ministry of Communications at Peking and a uniform scale of charges was introduced. In 1915, the total length of lines in operation was 42,518 m., with 710 stations. The rates in force (increased in 1920 in aid of the famine relief fund) are high, and messages in foreign languages are charged 50% more than those in Chinese. At the high silver exchange prevailing in 1919-20, the rate for telegrams in English was roughly equivalent to 6d. a word for messages in the same province, and Is. a word to other parts of China. A few foreigners (Danes) are still employed in the administration and a Danish adviser is attached to the telegraph departments of the Ministry at Peking. Wireless stations had (1921) been installed at Peking, Kalgan, Hankow, Nanking, Shang- hai and Canton, but their service was restricted to Government messages. In Oct. 1918, a contract was made by the Government with the Marconi Co. for the installation of three wireless stations at Kashgar, Urumchi and Lanchowfu, to communicate with a con- necting station at Sianfu.

Posts. The postal service of China, originally organized as a branch of the Imperial Maritime Customs, was separated from that administration and placed under the Ministry of Communications in May 1911. Under the republic it has remained a department of that Ministry, but responsible for its own budget and organization. Since 1911 the department has been controlled by a Chinese direc- tor general and a French associate director. Its activities extend