The continuous drought in Japan which has paralyzed the Japanese hydro-electric aystem has created an enormous demand for fuel to operate the power plants. Japanese mines, producing only a little ever 40,000,000 tons of coal each year, cannot meet this demand and "consequently the euuntry is foreed to import coal. Practically all the coal mined in the Jupanese occupied areas. in China is shipped direct to Japan, with a limited quantity. being shipped. to Shanghai by the Kailan Mining Administration. This coal has been rationed out most fairly among the old customers of the IMA, and at a reasonable price, Even the coal which Japan obtains from China cannot fulfil the country's needs, however, and she Is also forced to turn to Indian markets for the {uel Most of the mines which are in Japan. e60 controlled territory in China have been destroyed, railways which formerly carried the mineral from the mines to the coast have been torn up, and what ttle coal can be mined after makeshift repairs oes to feed the railway engines of the Japanese nillitary trains. 'Ironically " enough, Japan was able' to Import more coal from China before the war started than she Is today.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.