With the seaports of China still blockaded, with French Indo-China taken over by the Japanese and the railroad closed from Haiphong on the Gulf of Tonkin to Kunming in Yunnan province in China, there remains but one way by which arms, munitions and supplies can be sent in to the armies of free China to aid in their struggle against Japanese aggression. This is via the Burma Road which covers 688 treacherous mountain miles from Lashio, the railhead in Burma to Kunming, completing by this link a 2,100 mile route extending from Rangoon, seaport in Burma, to Chungking, provisional capital of China.
The building of the modern Burma Road will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the world's great engineering feats. Its route follows approximately that of the ancient Tribute or Ambassadors' Road, a trail passable only for pack animals and coolie burden bearers. Over this road, many centuries ago, Chinese envoys made their condescending way to southern Asia and subject Burmese potentates sent in their tribute to the rulers of China. The modern Burma Road cuts across great mountain ranges through soil varying from granite and limestone to laterite and loose shale. It ascends to a maximum altitude of approximately 8,500 feet, and in several places winds sharply down from a height of some 7,000 feet to cross rivers at an altitude of about 2,500 feet.
The building of the road in 1938 was directed by Chinese engineers trained in America. The cost of the road was but $5,000,000 because of the use of volunteer or conscript labor. As many as 250,000 coolies were at work on the road at one time. Entire villages — men, women, and children — joined to help build the road and established themselves in crude huts or in rock shelters. Each family group was responsible for the construction of a certain section and, on its completion, the head of the family marked the name-character of the family on the rocks by the roadside. Engineers in charge say that the only modern machinery used was drills to bore holes for dynamite. Much of the rock was blasted by the primitive method of alternate applications of heat and of cold mountain water. Gravel and rock were hauled in baskets, and the road was rolled smooth by means of huge boulders drawn by man-power or by water buffalo.
The first convoy of munitions was carried over the road in February 1939 — a phenomenal record in mountain road-building. Since its completion there has been a constant and increasing traffic of trucks, barring interruptions occasioned by landslides, washouts due to the annual monsoon season of torrential rains, and bombings of bridges and road by persistent Japanese planes.
On July 17, 1940, the road was closed for three months by British decree as a special concession to the Japanese in a gesture toward settlement of Far-Eastern difficulties. When the road was reopened on Oct. 17, 1940, some 2,000 trucks were ready and waiting at Lashio to transport the 100,000 tons of goods which had piled up there and the 500,000 additional tons awaiting at Rangoon. Truckloads consist principally of munitions and airplane parts, though they also include foodstuffs and supplies of every sort. On the return trips, the trucks bring out Chinese goods and metals for payment on American loans. In dry weather the trucks make the trip from Lashio to Kunming and return in two weeks.
Recently, the Southwest Transportation Company, the Chinese Government organization which controls the Burma Road, purchased one thousand second-hand truck axles with ball-bearing wheels. Old-style bullock carts have been mounted on these; they are drawn by oxen, and are invaluable for hauling goods around landslides impassable for trucks.
Since Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, the road has been within 350 miles of Japanese air bases. However, the steep mountain cliffs and the powerful air currents arising from deep gorges have made the road a difficult target for bombers. The greatest damage has been done to the long steel suspension bridges over the Mekong and the Salween rivers, but the Chinese maintain gangs of repair men on constant duty and traffic interruptions, occasioned by the Japanese, have not been too serious.
In June 1941, three prominent American engineers were sent to China by the United States Government to study the problems of keeping the Burma Road in repair, and of regulating the constant traffic of heavily laden trucks for the greatest possible efficiency.
See also CHINA; JAPAN.
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