It conditions on the lower of the river are improving rapidly, the same cannot be said of middle and upper river conditions. Above Hankow the situation continues to be chaotic. About one halt the usual number of ships are operation above Hankow to Tehang, and not more than one-fourth, if many, on the upper reaches' from Tehang to Chungking, 'A. convoy service, instituted in December, is provided once a week for British ships making the rur from Hankow to Ichang. While this has provided the necessary protection in the bandit-infested and disbanded soldier area, on this stretch of the Yangtze free movements of ships naturally are retracted and this entails a con equant restriction of trade on the middle river. Moreover, trade in this area depends largely upon trade conditions on the upper iver where it can be said that con-
Aitions axe so chaotic as to make movement of cargoos practically nil,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.