Chungking, July 16.
The Chinese Minister of Communications, Mr. Chang Kia-ngan, accorded an interview to Mr. H. H. P. Melchers, Transocean's General Manager for the Far East, yesterday in which he discussed the condition of the communications in South-
West China.
At the moment, the Minister said. the -communication lines are in a deplorable state but every effort was being made to improve the situation. The task of the government was made more difficult by what the Minister called the activities of vicious circles.
The foremost object, Mr. Chang Kia-ngan declared, was to increase the supply of war materials the industry being therefore engaged primarily on the execution of armament orders. The consequence was that the production of the necessary machines for the construction of roads was delayed, that the communications therefore could not be of armaments was badly impeded by want of sufficient. communication alternative way of procuring armaments, namely the import.
Asked as tothe condition of the connections with Burma, the Minister declared that in addition to the motor road recently built, a railway line was now under construction. It was impossible though to say when it would be completed as the progress of the work depended on many factors outside the control of the government as for instance the extent of co-opera tion of foreign powers.
Asked as io the relative importance of the three big lines of communications, the North west route, the road to Burma and the connection with Indo-China, the. Minister said that the importance of the routes changed with the circumstances. It was the policy of the Government to make the fullest Possible use of all three connections.
In addition to the three routes connecting China with the outside world, the - Government devoted great attention to the development of the connections to the front.
The Minister' concluded by declaring that it bad to be admitted that the: communications in China are still very primitive but the Government was working hard to improve the conditions and con-dent that they meet with ssu Trans+Ocean, Munich, July 16.
Herr Hitler spoke for' 20 minutes today when he opened the Festival of German art. He did not mention politics or even refer to the democracies, but confined himself to the past, present and future of Nazi art, Moulders of the political forms of nations, said Herr Hitler, must also shape art in accordance With political demands. The Nazi State, he continued, made art and the press into instruments for guiding the people, The first objective of German art bad been secured, he declared. A decent level, he added, had been attained, and the swindle of decadent art washed away Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.