The completion of this line marks an important step in railway developments in Manchuria. Tt forms the longest and most dificult link of the Kirin-Tunhua-Kuainei-Korean Coast Line, which will constitute another artery of Manchurian trade. The section of this trunk line now completed (Kirin-Tunhua) is the outcome of an agreement entered into in 1925 between the Peking Ministry of Communications and the South Manchuria Railway Ca. under: which the S.M.R, undertook to construct the line and to supply the required eapital—figured at Y. 18,000,000 exclusive of tunncl—in the form of a loan to the Ministry, Dearing interest at the rate of 9 Yer, cent, and redeemable at any date within 30 yeas, the property of the railway being security for the loan.
The new Tine, when ultimately extended to the seaboard, will open up the whole or part of 13 districts (hsiens) in Kirin province, with immense timber resources in virgin forests and capable of being developed into agricultural producers fon a vast scale. A conservative estimate places the amount of timer easily recoverable along the Tine at 280,000,000 koku (1,465,000,- 000 eu, ft.), and the annual produetion' at 1,600,000 pieces of logs, sufficient to supply not only all the domestic needs of Manchuria but also the demands of China Proper ax well as Japan and Korea in addition, "Agriculturally the region served by the railway is still largely undeveloped, but already the annual harvest of cereals and pulse amounts to 6,500,000 koku or about 850,000 tons.
Great Possibilities of Rice Growing What is particularly important to the Japanese is that large tracts of land are available for rice-folds, and already the annual: rice crop reaches about 680,000 koku (8,400, 000 bushels), but Japanese experts anticipate that ultimately some 2,000,000 Koku will be. raised, a quantity that would go far towards relieving the shortage of supply in Japan. Finally there are large! coalfields to be developed, so that the total volume of Manchurian produce to be carried by this rail way is estimated at some 2,000,000] tons annually.
Wowever, so far mo agreement has been reached between the Manchuria government and the Japanese concerning the last remaining. seetion, from Tunhua to the Korean border. Japan is naturally anxious to see the whole scheme completed, Dut the Chinese seem reluctant owing to the strategical advantage that the Japanese would gain from tis Tine penetrating from the Korean seaboard right into the /veart of Manchuria—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.