WAR IN CHINA: Life Line

Japan’s plan to capture Hankow, China’s acting capital, is first to cut all the city’s communications, then gradually encircle it. Last week, a Japanese column tightened the net around the capital by capturing strategic Hwangchwan, north of the Yangtze. Another column captured one of a series of river booms at Wusueh, 100 miles down the river from Hankow. Meanwhile, Japanese aviators bombed away at their main objective, the Canton-Hankow Railway.

Since the start of the 14-months’-old war this line has been bombed in 1,300 places. Speedy repair work has held the periods of service interruptions to a minimum, and last week trains were still running, albeit irregularly. Most remarkable testimony to Chinese ingenuity was that the 680-mile run from Canton to Hankow has been shortened to 36 hours instead of the old 45-hour schedule. Moreover, in spite of war, and because of heavy war supply shipment, the line made money; net profit last fiscal year was $4,000,000.

The Canton-Hankow Railway is China’s life line not only as the chief munitions route but also as a means of exporting tea. Only recently have the Japanese armies approached the tea fields of China. Hankow has become the chief tea trading centre of China and thanks to the railway’s continued operation Hong Kong has replaced Shanghai as chief tea port. Tea exports from China last year increased by 4% over 1936, amounted to 406,572 quintals (89,632,863 pounds), valued at over $30,000,000. This year the Soviet Union has contracted to buy $15,000,000 worth. Already shipped to Hong Kong from Hankow this year are 15,000 half-chests (975,000 pounds) of brick tea from Hunan and Hupeh, about half of last year’s stock.

Hankow remained calm last week, while her foreign language radio program “Voice of China” radiated confidence in Chinese arms. Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek appealed to Chinese Manchukuoans to transform that Japanese-dominated state into a “graveyard for the Japanese.” About 4,500 junks, including sailing boats, tug boats and sampans—capable of transporting 80,000 tons freight—manned by 16,000 boatmen earning 30¢ a day, worked feverishly to complete the evacuation of the three Wuhan cities (Hankow, Hanyang, Wuchang).