NEW ROUTES READY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1942, Page 5

NEW ROUTES READY

FOR TRANSPORT OF MATERIAL TO CHINA BY WAY OF INDIA & IRAN SHORT CUTS PLANNED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CHUNGKING, September 25. Two overland transportation routes covering thousands of miles are now ready to transport American war material from India and Iran to Chungking, transportation experts just returned from a survey of North-Western China told a United Press correspondent today. The' first route begins at Karachi, running through Lahore and Peshawar, thence to Alma Ata. and Lanchow. The second (Iranian) route begins at Bushire and runs northward to Bandar Shah, on the Caspian, thence, by water, to Krasnovodsk and Alma Ata.

The experts said two short cuts were also planned, the first providing transit from Karachi and Peshawar to Kashoar. in the Southern Sinkiang Province and thence across the southern slope of the Tientshaw Mountains to Kami and Chungking. This would require the construction of a 500 mile highway but the work was not difficult because the area was grassland. It would shorten the route greatly, eliminating long stretches through Afghanistan and Russia. A second short cut was a highway from Kashgar to Yarkand and thence to Chengtu and Chungking, providing the safest route, but requiring 1,250 miles of construction work.