CHINA: Salt for the Cellars

Within the harsh clamp of the Japaneseblockade, Free China strove patiently and primitively to keep hereconomy breathing. A scene caught by the camera at a salt mine toldpart of the story (see cut).

To make good the loss of salt resources in the coastal provinces, theChungking Government has stepped up production from the ancient saltwells of inland Szechwan. Free China had little iron or steel to sparefor this vital industry. Her engineers turned to the ways and the toolsof their forebears. They fashioned derricks and drills from lashedtimbers. They wove rope from split bamboo. For pipelines, snaking overthe land from well to refinery, they used the hollow trunk of thebamboo.