COMMERCIAL AVIATION.

COMMERCIAL aviation in China has, in the last three years or a, grown out of its infancy, with great promise ahead. In these days, when speed and still more speed is constantly demanded, the aeroplane fills a very real need in every country. Particularly is this so in China, where distances are so great between one end of the Republic and another, and land and water communications so poor. It requfres no great keenness of observation to realize that China's material progress depends most on the development of communications between all pans of the country. In this respect aviation plays a role so vital that, in large measure, China's advance must he measured in terms of the progress she makes in the air. Remarkable development is noticeable in the status of commercial aviation today as compared with flying-or the lack of it-in 1919. Like progressive people in other parts of the world, the Chinese are rapidly becoming "airminded," and the fact that the number oŁ passengers carried during 1936 by the China National Aviation Corporation was more than three tunes the 1934 total clearly shows the increasing popularity of air-travel in China. Not only are more people making using of aero-planes for rapid transit, but last year has seen the establishment of flying-dubs for the instruction of civilian amateurs who wish to acquire the art of piloting aircraft, and among these keen pupils are a number of young women-further evidence that China's wings are rapidly extending, and that public interest in and support of air-travel is not only firmly established but is steadily increasing.

The early history of aeronautics in China goes back to the cccasional use of military observation-balloons in the years before 1919, but without any practical value striking enough to encourage their wider adoption by the battling war-lords of the period. rn the year mentioned, howeve; contracts were entered into by the Government with the Handley-Page Company for the purchase of six passenger aeroplanes, and with the Vickers-Vimy for 40 commercial, 40 training, and 65 Avro machines. A number of foreign instructors and pilots were engaged, and an aviation school opened at Nanyuan, near Peiping, in 1920. Great hopes were then entertained for the establishment of a network of air lines, and plans to that end were enthusias-tically drafted, but failed to come to fruition on account of the recurrence of civil war, which racked the country till the National Government came into power in 1927. The first aeroplanes were seized upon arrival by various war-lords as their personal booty, and subsequent consignments met the same fate, so that nothing was achieved in the field of commercial aviation-with the exception of intermittent mail and passenger services between Peiping and the other termini at Tsinan and Peitaih-until 1929.

In that year the first regular air line was inaugurated, under the direction of the Ministry of Communications, to operate between Shanghai and Chengtu, but as a matter of fact the machines never went further west than Nanking. About this time, too, China Air-ways, an American company, opened a service between Shanghai and Hankow-following the course of the Yangtze-on a contract basis for the Government, which paid the company a fixed rate for every mile flown. Both these services depended on the carriage of mail for the bulk of their business. A start having been thus made, the next step of importance was when the two services were combined in July, 1930, as the result of an agreement between the Ministry of Communications and the American company, providing for the formation of the China National Aviation Corporation, now popularly known as the C.N.A.C. Of the authorized capital of 10 million Chinese dollars, the Ministry subscribed 55 per cent. and China Air-ways, Fed. Inc., U.S.A.--to give the full name of the foreign concern -contributed the balance. The agreement provided that the Corporation should first operate the Shanghai-Chengtu line, with termini at Shanghai and the Szechuan capital, and calling at Nanking, Anking, Kiukiang, Hankow, Shasi, Ichang, Wanhsien, and Chungking. A regular service was thereupon commenced for transport of mail which, for the time being, was carried as far west as Hankow.

It is interesting to note that, in spite of being a joint enterprise, requiring American investment and expert services, the Corporation was formed entirely under Chinese laws. It is also noteworthy as the first instance in which foreign co-operation was sought to develop the airways branch of China's national communications.