WEALTH ASSESSED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 3, 5 January 1938, Page 12

WEALTH ASSESSED

PROVINCES OF NORTH

WHAT JAPAN WILL GAIN

Wealth from mine, factory, farm, and sea is at stake in North China as Japanese and Chinese armies continue to fight, says a writer in the "Chicago Tribune." Coal, iron, textiles, cotton, foodstuffs, and salt will be prizes for Japan if it wins.

What China stands to lose economically in the five northern provinces when ana if Japan establishes control there is indicated in a pamphlet published by the Council of International Affairs in Nankingf In it the author, Tien-tsung Sih. a research fellow of the council, undertook to present an economic picture of Hopei, Shantung, Shansi, Chahar, and Suiyuan provinces.

These areas, embracing about 17.6 per cent, of all the people in China anJ Manchukuo, and about 9 per cent, of the total area, were lumped together by the Japanese, Sih said, "not because they constitute a distinct political or economic, unit." Rather, he said, they were grouped because the Japanese tried unsuccessfully to detach them in 1935 and "evidently have not yet abandoned hope of ultimately detaching them." ' "These five northern provinces are closely linked with and inseparable from the other parts of China, both economically and politically," Sih said. "The future development of heavy industries in China will depend on the iron ore available in these provinces, byt, on the other hand, manganese and tungsten necessary for steel manufacturing , must be obtained from the southern provinces. In textile industries these provinces produce a large quantity of cotton and wool to supply the demand of the factories in the south, which in turn supply tea and various types of manufactured goods to the north.

WIDE RANGE OF PRODUCTS.

"The eastern part of these North China provinces may be regarded as a low, level plain, well adapted to agricultural development. Since they border on the sea, large quantities of salt and fish are obtainable. The hilly lands in the western part are particularly rich in coal deposits. In the northern part the pasture lands are suitable for raising sheep and cattle.

Modern industries are growing up in

Hopei, Shantung, and Shansi, but are little known in Chahar and Suiyuan. The utility, of the railways has been greatly increased in recent years through the construction of highways to serve as feeders."

Coal is an important item of North China's potential mineral wealth. The pamphlet said this region has an estimated coal reserve of 132,759,000,000 tons, or 53.91 per cent, of the estimated total reserve of China and Manchukuo Shansi province is by far the richest of the five in this 'reserve, being credited with' 36,471,000,000 tons of anthracite coal, 87,985,000,000 tons of bituminous coal, and 2,671,000,000 tons of lignite, a total of 127,127,000 000 tons. Despite the vast reserve, however, production lags, and Shansi province in 1933 produced less than Hopei °r u Shantung, the pamphlet showed. The three together in that year turned out but 12,600,000 tons.

A large proportion of coal mines in the north are under the joint control of China and foreign interests, including British, Japanese, and German. China's iron ore reserve was greatly reduced when Japan established Manchukuo in what formerly was Manchuria, Sih's pamphlet asserted, since that area is rich in iron. The remaining supply "is found' largely in the North China provinces, particularly Hopei." ' The North China deposits are credited with containing 123,645,000 tons, compared with 872,181,750 tons in Manchukuo, and 136,975,000 tons in the rest of China. > ,

(The "Statesman's Year Book" says Shansi province alone is estimated to have 300,000,000 tons of iron ore.)

Gold, gypsum, asbestos, ■ fluor spar, and clay, with "comparatively small" production values, also are found in the five provinces.

COTTON INDUSTRY IMPORTANT.

Textile industries, the manufacture of foodstuffs and beverages, chemical industries, and machine making i are found,.in North China. Sih's discussion deals only with modern industries, since ■ handicraft industries "are gradually being displaced." * "The cotton industry is generally regarded as the most important in the north," he asserted. "About one-fifth of the spindleage and looms in China are located in Hopei, Shantung, and Shansi." -

■The. north, has, the pamphlet said, eighteen woollen mills with modern equipment.

"Wheat is the principal foodstuff in North China and its manufacture into flour forms a very important industry," Sin said. Of the 157 mills in China and Manchukuo, 32 are in the North China provinces. Two of these are Japanese. Due to the raw materials available in Hopei, Shantung, and Shansi provinces, the chemical industries *of North China produce chiefly alkali, acid, refined salt, dyestuffs, paper, leather, pottery, porcelain, glassware, cement, and matches Sin said. North China produces more than one-third of the total Chinese output of >salt.

(Salt is a Chinese Government monopoly but foreigners hold office in the salt administration because many foreign loans are secured on salt revenues. On August 8 the Japanese co-commissioner of the Chinese salt administration took charge in the Tientsin district.)