It has been a very successful year for shipping on the Sungari, as {500,000 "tons of goods have been. brought in and taken out of Harbin by water during the past navigation, the main cargo, naturally, being soya beans. At the present moment the water in the high reaches of the Sungari has fallen so much, that steamers are unable to navigate the channel, and with the approach of the winter, most of the steamers and barges on the river will be laid within the next two weeks, only one or two being left to run with the mails and passengers up to the moment when the ice closes the navigation altogether.
Freights on the Sungari have been lower than they were last year, and consequently the shipments have been larger, and if a trade agree ment was settled between Japan and Soviet Russia, there is no doubt that shipments on' the Sungari next year would be very much increased, especially if Manchurian steamers could Ravigate the Amur on the Manchurian side of the river with perfect safely.
Owing to the floods in the summer months, the river has been naviga able for large steamers the whole of the season, this not only adding to the safety, but also avoiding the necessity of transferring cargo to smaller craft where the water would not permit of large vessels passing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.