THE broadsheet “Poverty and Progress in China” recently issued by Political and Economic Planning (P E P) (No. 209) gives a concise but useful account of the social and economic situation in China, wartime changes and achievements and comments on post-war industrialization. About three-quarters of China's population, or 360 million people, draw their living from about 250 million acres, or only 11 per cent of the total area of China. While much of the remainder is definitely unfit for cultivation, some part of it could be used for agricultural purposes if irrigation were provided and scientific methods of farming used. By modern standards, Chinese agriculture is heavily under-capitalized and over-manned, the Chinese farmer grossly under-fed and overworked. Excessive rents are also a serious matter, but the poverty of communications is one of the greatest causes and consequences of China's material backwardness. Most of the known mineral resources are as yet unexploited, but raw materials required for the consumer goods industries can be supplied at home and some, such as silk, wool, tobacco, leather, furs and bristles, have long formed staple exports. China became almost self-sufficient in raw cotton by 1929.