The repeated attempts of Chinese! Jorganisations to stop the sale of [Japanese commodities drew a better proportion of European goods to the market, but the extraordinary lcheapnéss of the former made the trade in European articles unpro-table. Japanese prices were too low even for Russian printed cottons, but competition from Russia Idid not die out, and fishery pro-Jducts from that' country appeared for the first time, though in small quantities, in the local market. The lexpory, section of trade was extra. moly disappointing, Prices offering were excessively low, and foreign
stocks of any produce, preferring to rariota, Gd sot, bulb wp loren purchase on s hand-to-mouth basis. 'The sheep's business had a disastrous year; and the trade in skins, cotton, carpets, bristles, cow hides, beans and peas, walnuts, seeds' (except sesamum), hemp, jute, and many other items' was extrem moly discouraging; but there were few hopeful features to be noted, such as the brisk demand for exe products, groundnuts, straw braid, joement, etc. Local industries suffer-fed much from the loss of their Manchuria markets and had to adopt retrenchment policies in almost all cases, while only one or two new enterprises "were ventured "upon.
returns show a general increase all branches of shipping. The
Jocean-going and coastwise steamers provement in the tonnage of fas dite undoubledly to the: diver. sion of trade from Shanghai referred to above. The condition of the Haiho throughout the year remai ed unsatisfactory, only 382 steamers, jas against 802 in the previous year, being able to proceed upstream to /Tientsin; but there was sufficient water on the bar to enable coasting vessels to reach Tangku, Conditions at Hankow The year opened under very discouraging conditions Hankow. Hupeh, which was still ina very impoverished state as a result of the extensive floods of 1931, suffered severely from the activities of the communist forees which had overrun Jconsiderable areas. of the province, retarding the already difficult enough and somewhat uncertain} process of recovery, Cond along the Han River were excep.
nally bad, communist-bandit being in occupation of almost the entire province to the north. Jwest. Trade along that river was almost brought to a standstill a traffic along the Ping-Han [crop conditions of the previous year, and, following upon the success of the' Government's military opera-Jtions in the province, there was general restoration of communica ons and a consequent resumption of business with many cities which led to a slight revival of trade towards the close of the year. For the period under review, however, the general decline shown by the statistics for all sations of trade will occasion no surprise, The impoverished state of the country owing to the effects of the floods of 1031 and the communist disturbances is well illustrated by the reduced. imports of mineral oil, sugar, and lu-Jxuries in general. "The causes for the poor export trade lay maint in the with which the nation was faced, the disturbed state of the province of Hupeh where producing districts were in the hands of the communists until relieved by the Government forces, the events in the Shanghai neighbourhood which so severely hampered river trade and increased the financial difficulties of exporters, and the depressed mark-jets abroad.
The total tonnage of the shipping Jentering and clearing at "Hankow under General Regulations was 6,7 million as against 7.4 million tons 2 the decrease was in the statistics for river steamers. After the disastrous floods of the previous year the National Flood Relief Commission took in hand the gigantie task of constructing adequate dikes along the banks of the Yangtze. Roads were built on the dikes encircling Hankow, and it is now possible for motor-cars to be driven lover their entire length. The bund ltseit is now protected by concrete walls or, in some places, by earthen
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.