It has been known for quite ai long time that, not only have the merchants of China and the young Chinese with a "Western training" in science had an aviation service under close consideration, but even the officials in Peking have had it in mind.
The story of transport in China during the last hundred years finds no parallel in the records of any other country in the world. For thousands of years the Chinese sailed their junks along the coasts of the Far East, aad some of them penetrated far inland along the wonderful natural waterways of the country. Far-sighted Emperors caused this inland transport system. to be supplemented by the wonderful artificial waterways of which the Grand Canal, as originally constructed, is the finest example in the whole world. Indeed, so excellent for inland commerce were) the waterways of China, that it is perhaps not surprising to find that those men of constructive genius who carried out their wonderful work centuries ago did not decide upon building roads suitable for wheel traffic. Even' to-day China is, for all practical purposes, country without roads.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.