Before the present hostilities began, the Chiang Kai-shek government managed to defray its own expenditures and to feed its vast armies as well. In future there must be a considerable margin of revenue which can be devoted to reconstruction, in addition to meeting governmental expenses as formerly, China needs some foreign goods, but she is rich in natural resources, specially agricultural. As the latter come to be really developed, her ducts can be exported in greater abundance, in return for which she will be able to import more and more of what she does not produce.
Europe and America wil! thus be able to buy from China foodstuffs and raw materials which they need and to sell to China their manufactured goods. In this way China's commerce with Europe and America will be complementary and there should be no conflict of interests.
Therefore if we succeed in effectively readjusting China's trade relations, the work of reconstructing and developing that country can be accomplished without borrowing ingle penny from foreign capitalists.
China's aggregate exports and imports in 1936, the year before that in which the hostilities started, were valued at 1,650,000,000 yuan. Of this. the amount handled by the Maritime Customs within the areas occupied by the Japanese forces in north and central China was 1,340,000,000 yuan, that is, somewhat more than 80 per cent. of the total.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.