A fow years ago certain of the London papers which seem to. have had nothing better to do got concerned. The report which we published yesterday of the operation for the past- year of the great port and export. figures. for, Britain of artificial silk stockings show that Whatever may have appeared on the surface at the time to which we alluded there has been nothing since to justify the misgivings then curent. Andwe are able to add a note about artificial sik which particular-applies to China and which indicates that already the foundations} of a very great future for this material have been established here.
'Actually in very" recent' years artificial silk imported by foreign merchants has come into very great Chi nda gown-making me favour among certain classes of
dustzy in one of the cities of this part of China is believed to. have largely abandoned its use of real silk. This brings out one very note. worthy fact, which is that, par doxical as' it may. seem, the artificial does not actually compete ith the real article, At least we are told so by experts in real silk, for they hold—and doubtless righty} too—that nobody who can afford the initial heavier cost of real silk will ever wear the other article. As to durability it is hardly to be expected that anything could be devised to compete against the product of the silkworm, and after all, no matter by what one calls another article, it can never be the same as. the natural product. That, however, does not detract from. the value of artificial silk us a commodity, and the probability is that it is only at the beginning of its usefulness, Hongkong to Shanghai by Air One of the leading airmen of of Hongkong has just read a before distinguished officials and officers in the Colony on the posities of an aerial service between will naturally be as last coming nen practical in this connection. We must, not raise hopes, for we have been doomed to disappointment so often that at length it becomes dificult for Us to believe in its possibility within anything like a reasonable number of years. For one thing we have seen the difficulties which pilots have had to surmount in making this pat-Veular journey, but the Pride of Detroit showed that these were not insuperable, and the rea) trouble in the way has been the political inaptitude that has refused to take advantage of all the benefits that auch services would offer, military commandeering of aeroplanes, or luck of money. One can recall several promising efforts that have come to nought. To start with there was the proposed mail service be-Shanghai and Peking which one time seemed to be within a few weeks of accomplishment and then fizzled out, Later on a French hydroplane service on the Yangtze which would have gone past. the Gorges offered great possibilities, but again there was never even a commencement. Last of all it was more or less believed that all difficulties had been got over fur ait communication between Japan and China, yet that hus also failed to take practical shape. We realize, of course,-that the political situation. of the country precludes the pos-of an air service at the present juncture in many parts, but that does not apply as. between Hongkong and Shanghai, and it may bbe hoped that following' the lecture in Hongkong to which we alluded in our opening sentence something. may be done to take advantage of the suggestions which Wing-Commander Fowler has put forward.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.