Shanghai, Apr. 23.
The Sino-Japanese hostilities oc~ Jcurred soon after the Automobile Club Jof China had instituted attractive new features which provided members with valuable road faeltities, and these, of necessity, hiad 10 be tempor~ arily suspended as a result, the ehatrman of the Club, Mr. H, Tiofenbacher, pointed out at' the annual general meeting held yesterday afternoon at the offices of ¢he secretaries, 47 The Bund. Tt was the intention of the [committee, the chairman continued, reste road patrols-immediately this [became practicable, and by this means obtain as quickly as possible information regarding the condition of roads land bridges. 'A general survey of all main motor roads will be undertaken, Jand information furnished to members regarding routes which are open for juse, and the best means of reaching [various points of importance.
The chairman continued:
A survey will also be made of hotel Jaccommodation and repairs service fayallable along the main arteries. I fear that stop-over accommodation has! suffered considerably and even in Jcases where no damage has been done it will probably be some time before the owners decide to resume opera~ tions, "However, your committee will do everything possible with a view to improving touring conditions for [motorists whenever the various motor roads -are again made available for Jgeneral use, Up to the time that hostilities broke Jout in this area your committee had maintained the close touch which had been established from time to time [with various authorities for the purpose of smoothing the way for motorists and of obtaining information as regards future plans. As you will realise with the departure of the varl~ fous Government 'Departments from Nanking, such contact Is not now possible, The Bureau of Roads of the National Economic Council and the' authorities of the majority of the pro~ winces continued to carry out import-lant programmes of expansion and improvement of motor roads and there is reason to believe that whilst many of the existing roads have suffered greatly during hostilities, a con= siderable number of new motor highways have been completed, Upkeep of Roads We shall have to wait for particulars of these new roads, however, [as information of this nature is not, readily chained as long as Aghting Is continuing. It appears reasonable assume that whilst considerable Jdamage has been done to certain motor roads, military necessity has assured their' upkeep to a great extent and this may be taken to apply to bridges and ferries, so that once the different areas are thrown open to the public I believe that motor touring will be possible within a short period.
Your committee received u severe setback by the withdrawal from cltculation by the Chinese Government of all motor road maps, ard this was rendered all the more serious by the fact that the new 17-province map which was being prepared by the Highways Bureau, for supplies of which the club had arranged, was already in course of printing and would probably have been in the hands of members within a very. short time. This was the most up-to-date road map produced in China, setting forth the fullest possible information in" eluding places at which repairs ser~ [vice was available, "As you will see from the annual re~ port, the membership of the club increased from 807 in 1936 to 1253 in 1997, and at the time the hostilities commenced there seemed no reason why the steady increase in the roll of membership should not have been [maintained indefinitely. felearly th Anances of the club and there is nothing J can usefully add beyond saying that our ancial post~ tion gives no rise for immediate worry asthe club still has a considerable balance of cash in hand and debentures with a face value of $4,200, As referred ¢0 previously, however, every effort is being made to cut' down expenses. wherever possible.
'The following members were clect= led to serve on the committee for the fensulng, year:—Messrs, IK, C, Cheann, Kay C." Chun, C. S. Franklin, XK, Kuroda, P. F, Lefevre, B, B, McBain, M, Nicole, C.' Pultfarckon, Rivau, Miss A. Viola Smith, TE Tiefenbacher, P. C, Wong, B. ¥. Woo and Yeh.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.