An agreement was signed at Chungking on December 11, 1939, and ratified on March 1, 1940, under which a group of French banks agreed to provide against Promissory Notes to be issued by the Chinese Government the materials required for a railway from Kunming (Yunnanfu) 1|to Suifu on the Yangtsze. The credits for the railway materials in question were guaranteed by the French Government through the French Counterpart of the Export Credits Guarantee Department. A strong desire was expressed by the Chinese Government and in various other quarters that British interests should participate in the Burma Yangtsze Railway by entering into a similar agreement with respect to the section running from Kunming (Yunnanfu) to Burma. The matter received the earnest and prolonged consideration of the directors and was the subject of much Correspondence and many discussions. It was frankly admitted, however, by ihe Chinese Government that the capital required for the construction of such a railway could not be raised on a commercial basis.
Eventually, however, it was found that credits extended to the Chinese Government under the Export Credits Guarantee scheme could not be em-Pioyed for the materials required for the Burma Yunnan Railway and this, apart from the many other difüculties inherent in this scheme, rendered any immediate participation by the corporation impossible. The political and commercial advantages to China, and indirectly to the British Empire, of improved communications by road and rail with Burma and the South-West were not in dispute. It was to be hoped that the present check was only temporary and that the corporation might in the not too distant future find the occasion to ce-operate in a project so much in the interests of all concerned.
The report and accounts which the directors presented for consideration this year were an eloquent testimony to the injury that had been inflicted on them, in common with all other commercial interests in China—not only foreign but Chinese, and they believed Japanese as well—by the conflict that had now been dragging on its dreary course for nearly three years. At the moment this conflict was overshadowed by the greater tragedy that was now being enacted in Europe. It was evident that no improvement in the position of the corporation could be expected until peace and sanity returned to the world once more, Quick work by the Secret Service, the Special Branch at Scotland Yard, and men of the Defence Services generally, resulted in - important Counter-moves being made.
Armed guards and patrols have been posted at vital centres. Barbed wire entanglements are provided at certain key points, And, hour by hour, more volunteers are joining the Defence Volunteer Corps anti-parachute units, to swell the first 250,000.
German servant girls who once worked in Britan- are being forced by the Germans to become "suicide squad" parachutists, for use in any projected invasion attempt. This is alleged by pilots who flew air liners from Holland and Belgium when the Nazis marched into the Low Countries.
The plan is for a girl to accompany each crew and act as guide. The parachutists would then be dropped in '& district that she knows.
Some time before the war, servant girls in Britain were recalled to Germany. Later, some were allowed by the Nazis to return here for set periods, Then they again went back to Germany.
Some people are concerned at the prospect that the Nazis might attempt a mass parachute invasion of Eire as a prelude to an attack on Britain. Nazi elements in Eire have been active and there has been talk of the possibility of western ports beings seized as fuel supply bases for German ships.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.