Burma Roadway Tonnage Has Been Trebled

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 165, 15 July 1941, Page 6

Burma Roadway Tonnage Has Been Trebled

(The newly-appointed Director-General of the Burma Road tells here what has been done to increase the daily tonnage reaching China over that route.) By DR. JOHN EARL BAKER ■THE fourth year of China's defen- * sive war is drawing to a close. states a dispatch from Kumming. China. For four years China has traded space for time. has opposed heavy artillery, battleships and tanks with machine guns, rifles and hand grenades: has defied aerial bombardments, principally with a stonecutter's chisel and skill in taking protective cover. For four years China's has been a policy of fight and fall back; lay ambush and then scurry for safe positions; raid munition clumps— carry away as much as possible and destroy the rest. The enemy finds this exhausting, as it is intended to be. It is exhausting to China also, but the Chinese live very close to the good earth, and the more they are thrown back to conditions of fundamental living the stronger they become. Nevertheless, the struggle does involve waste and weariness. In the early months of the war thousands were wounded monthly. Flesh opposed to steel, it could not be otherwise. But now the casualties are mostly those of disease and malnutrition. China is not lacking in food. In no province can there be said to be famine: but thousands have been compelled to move to i communities where they have no root. And until they are established it is Inevitable that many go hungry. War Against Disease Many provinces have always been regions of deficient food production. The blocading of the usual trade routes in China has made necessary the use of more expensive routes. The consequent rise in the price of food works its hardships on families with small incomes, especially those with fixed incomes or those' whose rice winners are working at a distance. Great numbers suffer from malnutrition because of the unbalanced nature of the diet which they are forced to follow because of the necessities of economy. These factors; produce in every locality a definite need for charity. Relief needs in China are increasing also because standards of relief are rising. There was a time when China was content to permit an epidemic to decimate a city. That time is passed. Chinese physicians, lealth officers and nurses are becoming numerous. They have moved into remote regions.' They are now combating plagues, cholera, typhoid and similar scourges in every city and in most of the market towns. There is a shortage of labour in many parts of China. Believe it or not—a shortage of labour. Gasoline power is now cheaper than rice rower. Freight rates by truck are lower than those by ricksha or pack mules. Great as the need for money with which to buy food and medicine, it is greater for trucks and gasoline with which to bring in both food and medicine. This transport is needed jarticularly within free China )ecause the lower Yangtze, the ower \ellow River, the railways, the Grand Canal and most of the lesser canals are in the hands of the invader. But back in the mountains are thousands of miles of highways connecting one valley with another, connecting a source of supply with a place of need. Gasoline and trucks i are coming in over the Burma Road i ibut it is a long road and the total cost is high. Military necessity comes i {first. More trucks and gasoline are l needed for military supplies than we < have now. j Tonnage Rises Daily i Let no one be deceived by talos ' that the Burma Road is blocked It l IB not blocked, it will not be blocked. There are probable points of stoppage, but for each one there is a plan s which, though not so convenient as ", the regular route, still will permit of » a continuous flow of traffic. There ' are tales of confusion and inefficiencv { J Many of the tales are true: the fact' remains that ever since the road was , reopened last October everv month t has seen an increase in the daily ton- * nage reaching Kunming f , For the month of April it was c treble that in November last vear r out there is room for further t increase. In addition to food and t medicine we need trucks and qaso- 1 line and drivers and repairmen t Send them to us and they will sureivli reach a point of need ' 'If A part of the Burma Road cuts! through sub-tropical jungle. Herd breeds the anopheles menace the dreaded malaria-carrying mosquito! d ° r take Precaution against the infection are sometime* I dead within a few days. Fortv high-j way labourers died a "few davs'ago e in one period of 24 hours. Many who ao not take sufficient precaution are dangerously ill for many days The South-western Transportation Co the Ministry of Communications the a^llPTo n rVin ea t ,th Administration are ail working to make, these precautions sufficient, but budgets do not budge when prices rise nor do they take into consideration the cost of bringing in new staffs when the faTiTor'fov v ?' untee '- organisations tan in oi for other reasons leave the field.—"Auckland Star" and NANA