London, Jan. 23.
A few far-sighted people are enquiring about the possibilities of capital investment in India as a set off against the loss of opportunities in China, writes the Special Correspondent of the Financial News.
One of the results of the Far Eastern conflict, he declares, is sure to be a greater amount of attention for Indis, both on strategic and economic grounds.
What may turn out to be the only routes for western trade contact with China are routes that can be made available through Burma, the correspondent believes.
If any western trade remains to be done with China, then the possibilities: of India as a manufacturing and -distributing centre are due for exploration.
The correspondent takes up the suggestion that the change in ihe Chinese Maritime Customs tariff, initiated by Japan, may hit tobacco, im particular, and thus seriously affect British and American concerns importing large quantities ior the manüfacture of cigarettes in China. He says that if such firms. have developed export trade, it might be saved by transferring this manufacture to India.
"There is no reason," the correspondent concludes, "why the Chinese export trade of eggs and bristles, to name but two commodities, should not be transferred, if it is we the west, end interests concerned with it be developed from India's natural resources."—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.