'The margin between living and actual starvation in most parts of China is so narrow that anything that impedes the transport and trade of the country causes the death of thousands of hor' people and acute distress to hundreds of thousands.
Te in becoming somewhat axiomatie that, given reasonably good] transport facilities and a reasonably unhampered financial movement of goods, China's woes would be to a large extent mitigated and the exchange question brought within sane boun That the imposition of ties by military and other offshoot parasitic bureaux on imports and exports gradually bringing trade to a standstill is probably more apparent on the Upper Yangtze than elsowhere, A Dill of lading from Chungking requires 14 separate and Gistinet "chops" before the goods can move.
General Liu notification from Likin ete., but his reply was something in the nature of "try and stop it" Liu Hsiang is a powerful factor in Szechuen. His military strength makes him fairly secure against any undue pressure from Nanking. Nevertheless, the taxes stand in danger (2) of ceasing to operate by -reason of there Leing ing to tax and the military will their fertile oginations to increase the revenue by other r-eans, Merchants in Middle West and West Stechuen are routing their acengre shipments vid Yunnarfu and thence to Haiphong Merchants in Middle East and East Stechuen are routing their shipments vid Kueifu, all endeavouring to void the military taxes at Changking and Wanhsien, Presents ly, perhaps. the local gentry of bandits will become fully ative te the possibilities contained in this method of routing and—protection taxes will be imposed. Perhaps too, the genuine military will appoint various caravan route commission evs to collect tolls, Taxes, fines and other impositions Ihave considerably reduced the tonnage available along the waterway, but foreign shipping companies are maintaining an adequate transport service for the amount of goods and passengers moving. Profitable freights in any quantity are out of the question and shipowners are lucky if they can make unit ranning: costs.
The question of guards on British steamers is a vexed one. Some times a guard is provided sometimes one is not. In the absence of any information to the contrary, it would appear that the provision of a guard depends solely on the port gunboat commander's guess on prevailing conditions. If this be so-it warrants inquiry, To the casual' observer, making possibly a trip or two to Chungking under favourable circumstances, the need for a guard is not acutely apevent. Gunboat commanders rare-have the facilities to be anything ut casual observers. Conditions change and fluctuate so rapidly along the Yangtze valley that it wholly impossible for a: two-year services man (whose station work during the two years is distributed generally Letween Upper, Middle and Lower Yangtze) to say that stich and such a thing will or will not occur. Men with years of hard experience of the Upper Yangtze slete that a guard is necessary. They know that possibilities are probabilities on the Upper Yangt On the steamers of the Indo China 8. N. Ca, the captain and. officers go armed at all times, They are efficiently trained: revolver shots and have no illusions with regard ty peaceful conditions. Those who deplore this aggre attitude should bear in mind that the aggression is directed against these individuals who respect neither Chinese nor foreign life property. And—in passing—be said that this same aggre altitude has done much to subdue the hooligan element at the terminal Nevertheless, though the with an ordinary case of piracy whilst rumning,.they are naturally Yimited in their ability to cope with a determined attack from shore when anchored at. night-time. Again, should the vessel unfort-nately with an. accident whilst ranning, as in the recent case of the B, & S. str. Wanliu, she is helplessly open to attack -at-any time by bandits. The action of the N. K, K, steamer in putting the nucleus of a Japanese guard: abeard the Wanlix until such time as HM, S, Cockchafer could reach her was, in effect, a mark of courteous rebuke to the British Naval Authorities. What the travelling Chinese thinks of the "peaceful conditions" is shown in the distinct falling off in the passenger receipts when a guard is not provided.
Since the breaking of the' Pilots' strike (largely by the successful efforts of Capt, Hughes of the Ki Wo) the "loudly and autocratic' pilot has ceased to be. Insofar as Captain Hughes' steamer is concerned the rilots have reverted to their true status—that is of men who are on board simply to assist the shipmaster by means of their Toeal knowledge. They have no retinue of quartermasters and ser-anti with the attendant "pidgin passengers and cargo and with the passing of these a great deal of the frictional element that formerly interfered with shipboard efficiency has been removed, a manifesto to the local ver-na cular press the Hupeh pilots stated that they have always received generous treatment from the foreign shipowners and that} during the strike they were the Jfccent victims of their chairman's high-handedness. This, of course, is so much "face pidgin." Nevertheless, the on outstanding benefit of the' strike is the realization of the pilots themselves that they are not indispensable, On "ems that the river inspection people in the past have been much too indiscriminate in their issuing of licences to prospective pilots. There are too many men with a less than mediocre knowledge of the river holding licences. On the other hand, there are a few very good pilots who, with an intelligent grasp of the handling of a steamer in a swift waterway and a good knowledge of the river's slacks and backwaters, are worth their wages to the si owner on the saving in fuel consumption alone—at least during the ¢hewater season.
Contrabrand, being a fairly steady source' of revenue to the Szechuen military, constitutes an Opium the "get-rich-qui them morphia is the dernier eri in contraband. There are at least three places in and around Chungking where the drug is manufactur-a crude form. Volume for: volume it opium and is more. easily hidden. With the introduction of this traffic and the increased endeavour of the parasitic bureaux to tax and squeeze its movement, the—corrupt bribery, ete. has become disgui ly intensified. The utmost a conscientious shipmaster can do with regard to contraband cargo is to keep it wi able bounds, To stop it altogether is out of the question—the traffic being so intimately bound up with the corrupt practices of the numerous official and semi-official bureaux.
Here as elsewhere throughout the Tength and breadth of China the snarling and bickering, the selling and re-selling of each other goes on. The corrupt practices of a wholly dis honourable reign of pseudo-military officialdom are plunging the country into a paralyse ed state out of which it will take her decades to recover. What the outcome will be no-one knows. No-tone has even' started to wonder. Progress and development must come and the enlightened average Chinese official knows it. But disinterested work in the cause of that progress and development is foreign to" him. Material and primarily immediate gains form his slogan and by the manipulation of "an obstructionist policy" he skilfully manages to force progress and development to subserve his own ambitions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.