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Press Interview Given by the Chinese Minister (Sze) on Occasion of the Inauguration of Air Service Between Shanghai and Canton, October 24, 1933 29

One of the most important steps in the extension of modern transportation in China will be taken today with the inauguration of regular air transport service between Shanghai and the chief commercial centers of coastal China as far as Canton by the Chinese [Page 605] National Aviation cooperation [Corporation] with which the Pan American Airways System is associated.

The new service, which will provide the first rapid means of transport and communication between important commercial cities in a territory with a population of nearly one hundred million, will operate over a one-thousand-mile direct route between Shanghai, Wenchow, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow and Canton. With a one-day service from Shanghai to Canton, the airline schedules will reduce to a fraction the time heretofore required for travel and communication through this important territory. At the outset only air mail will be carried but it is planned to extend the service for the transportation of passengers in the near future.

Of particular importance toward the development of Chinese commercial resources, the service is a new evidence of the friendly spirit of cooperation existing between China and America. It will provide greatly improved facilities for commerce in this trade area, and should materially stimulate the already important commerce between China and America which, even under the extraordinarily depressed conditions of 1932, amounted to over one hundred million dollars. The recent fifty million dollar loan granted by the American Government to China is another expression of this helpful attitude and the service to be provided by the new airway is, we believe, the forerunner of further developments in which the interests of the Chinese and American peoples will be closely bound together.

  1. Copy handed to the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs by the Chinese Minister on October 23.