THE BURMA ROAD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4403, 17 March 1941, Page 3

THE BURMA ROAD

BOTTLE-NECK TRANSPORT. AMERICAN SUPPLIES FOR CHINA. (Christian Science Monitor.) CHUNGKING, February 1. However jubilant the Chinese press and most of the officials may be about the 110,000,000 dollar recent credit from the United States for the purchase of military and industrial supplies, China is going to have to think long and hard to find a way of using it, as realistic officials admit. China has not yet exhausted previous American loans. Credit is plentiful, but means of transportation to import the goods purchased with this credit is scarce.

The Burma road, major route for American supplies, is a bottle-neck. According to a transport official, between three and four thousand tons of goods are coming in monthly over the road a few drops in a very large bottle. The Japanese are not chiefly responsible for the lightness of the traffic. Latest reports show that traffic is proceeding with great difficulty. Japanese warplanes recently hit two bridges but traffic was halted only for a very short time. The Salween bridge, which is long and fairly vulnerable, was bombed twice, but now trucks can cross it very slowly, in spite of Japanese reports that traffic has been completely cut off. According to George Wang, of the United Press, the Mekong river bridge, now that it has been repaired, is as strong “as a single piece of steel.”

The real difficulties are: (1) lack of trucks and gasoline, (2) inferior personnel, (3) inadequate repair facilities and lack of spare parts, and (4) poor co-ordination between the various transport organisations. DELAY IN WASHINGTON.* About 1000 trucks are available for operation between Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, and Wangting, on the Burma border, but many are not being used. At Wangting the cargoes are transferred from trucks belonging to a Burmese commercial firm. This firm operates 250 trucks. As the trip from Lashio requires only one and a half days, while the trip from Wangting to Kunming takes five days, goods are piled up in Wangting, in spite of the smaller number of Burmese trucks.

Chinese exports do not flow out in a continuous stream. Supplies cannot be sufficiently concentrated in Kunming to ensure a steady outflow. Exports, however, are more than enough to pay for the trickle of imports.

According to the Chinese Maritime Customs, Unoccupied China exported 130,539,000 dollars worth of goods during the first nine months of 1940, meanwhile importing 46,292,000 dollars. The reopening of the Burma road will doubtless increase imports, but nevertheless China is apt to find itself paying commodities for its American loan before it receives it!

The potential capacity of the Burma road, in terms of the availability of trucks and gasoline, is between 6000 and 7000 tons a month. That only 3000 or 4000 are coming in can be attributed to bombing, the usual seasonal rains and poor organisation. For the first time, however, the road is being kept open during the rainy season. Several landslides, especially between Shiakuan and Paoshan in the middle section of the road, are a great handicap. GASOLINE TROUBLES.

The real problem, however, concerns trucks and gasoline. The import of gasoline is difficult, and requires much truck tonnage. The distribution of the gas, moreover, after it has been imported, is inefficient, chiefly because it is not handled by a central organisation. Many trucks are not being operated because of lack of gas. At the same time the only way to bring in enough gas to run the truck is by truck. Thus the development of the, freight capacity of the Burma road requires precise planning and rational organisation. The expenditure of a large part of the American loan for American trucks is futile unless some way is found to augment the normal supply of gasoline. The period of closure, however, did not deplete China’s stock of gasoline as much, as is commonly supposed. In fact some people say that more gas came over the road when it Was illegal than is coming now. According to the terms of the closure, the British could send Burmese trucks to Kunming with enough gas to bring them back. What the trucks actually did was to stop just over the border and siphon the gas from their tanks. Then they would wait by the side of the road till it was the proper time to go back to Burma. The Chinese got the gas. Chinese transport officials admit that many problems must be solved before the freight capacity of the Burma road is developed to meet the increased demand placed on it by; th* American loan. They say that a plan is being worked out. For the moment, the Government will .Concentrate on the import of military supplies, and

let other commodities come in as best they can. PROBLEM OF PERSONNEL. Personnel is an important problem. South-west China has 20,000 registered truck drivers, but only 2000 mechanics. Though training schools have been set up and efforts made to lure young men from Shanghai and the coastal areas, it is difficult to find drivers who are efficient and honest. Most squeeze on gas, selling it to the drivers of commercial trucks. They coast downhill, against regulations, to save gas, thereby endangering their lives and cargo and shortening the life of the truck.

The official price for gasoline is 24 dollars a gallon; the truck drivers sell it for 15 dollars. The drivers say that their pay is so low that they have to make something on the side. But transport officials maintain that a “good, honest” driver can earn 300 dollars a month. Drivers who operate without an accident and who take good care of their trucks are paid a bonus.

Inadequate repair facilities and lack of spare parts keep many trucks off the road. Too many stations have been set up by too many organisations, and what little equipment is available has been inefficiently distributed among them. Because of the rough, steeplygraded road, slow-moving parts, which almost never have to be replaced on United States roads, often break. And strangely enough, the fast-moving parts, of which many spares are supplied by the American manufacturers, often stand up very well. On American roads, for example, springs rarely break. On the Burma road springs, particularly the front ones, are often the first to go. TRUCK’S LIFE ONE YEAR. The average life of a truck is one year or less. A truck generally goes about 4000 miles the first month, but thereafter its utility is sporadic and uncertain. Dodges, Chevrolets, and Fords are the most common makes. The grades are being cut down and the curves improved by gangs of coolies, many of whom are tribespeople. Some of the grades are as steep as 20 degrees. An effort is being made to make eight degrees the standard.

Four organisations are concerned with the traffic over the Burma road, and they are descentralised and badly co-ordinated. The real power is the South-west Transport Co., which has a virtual freight monopoly. This company is a fief, and pays little tribute to anybody. Its head is T. L. Soong, brother of Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Severe criticism has been made both of Mr Soong and his company.

The China Transport Company controls a certain amount of the traffic between Kunming and Chungking, but is thoroughly shadowed by the South-west Transport Company. The National Highway Transport Administration, under the Ministry of Communications, deals with the transport problem as a whole, but it also has to deal with the YunnanBurma Highway Transport Adminstration, a provincial organisation. This complicates matters.