Poor Communications Responsible for -Province's Poverty: Very Mountainous Area By W, Lewisons:
Kueichow. is one of the most mountainous and inaccessible provin-fees of China, In former days, before the advent of railways and. motor roads, It used to take anything from two "to three months to reach Kueiyang from the coast, This, no doubt, accounts for the backward state of the province and the signs of poverty one meets with every-Where, In no other province have seen so many gaunt, hungry-looking. people, dressed in rags and tatters, more like beggars than hard-working peasants, And, as far as I noticed, this did not apply to any particular district, Dut was the same in most of the vil: Tages through which T passed, which generally consist of a number of miserable hovels built of thatch. "Tt! was explained to me ofcially that. this poverty was due to the drought and "consequent crop failure from Which the province nad been suffer Ing in recent months. But this of the whole df the story; for old Fesidents confirmed that this poverty. was @ phenomenon of long standing. It'is undoubtedly due to the moun famous nature of the province and to the poor communications. double the original price by the time they reach Kueiyang.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.