Whatever political or financial difficulties are facing Manchoukuo, the, tremendous development of the port of Dairen through enhanced Japanese trade is an indication that, in some degree, Japanese policies are beginning to pay. With a big drain on the merchant fleet for transport and other military purposes, Japanese shippers are looking around for foreign shipping to handle trade with that port and five more Greek ships have been purchased, making a total of 43 Greek ships in Japanese waters. The necessity for such a step is provided by trade statistics for Dairen. During the year ended March 31, according to the Japanese exports totalled 5,424,000 tons and imhandled by tramp vessels making the grand total over 10,000,000 tons, which is the highest figure registered since the port was opened During that year's period, 7,000 vessels went alongside the piers and wharves, being an increase of 650 on the previous year and representing a total tonnage of 18,000,000 which places Dairen among the biggest ports in the world as far as tonnage is concerned. The new ship purchases indicate that even greater development is in store for the port to handle the increasing volume of freight but with this great expansion is the necessity for enlarging port facilities which, hitherto, have been found inadequate to cope with the trade. This is a problem which the authorities are now considering.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.