The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-08-01
HUDSON OFFICIALS
MAKE RECORD TRIP

The flying fishes still play "On the
road to Mandalay" and there is still
sea room for the flotillas to lie, as per
Kipling's famous ballad-but there is
no road to Mandalay for automobiles
yet.
H. H. Kelly, special representative
for the Hudson Motor Car Company
manufacturers of Hudson and Essex
cars, who has just returned from a
trip to the far east during which he
set record of $4,000 miles in five
and half months, using every means
OF transportation from airplanes to
oxcarts ad Chinese Rickshaws, travel
led the road and found it vastly UNI
pleasant experience. The road is a
bullock trail with an abundance of
dust, and surrounded by humid tropi-
cal underground and forest.
According to Mr.. Kelly, the gener-
al market for automobiles in the Far
East is excellent. With the exception
of India and French Indo- China, where
commercial allegiance to the mother
country controls buying motives, over
80 per cent of the far eastern mar
kets absorb cars of American manu-
facturers. The reason or America S
motor car dominance in the Asiatic
area may be attributed to the superior
quality and performance of the Ameri-
can motor vehicle. In China and ia
pan, the Hudson and Essex are par
ticularly popular for these reasons,
says Mr.. Kelly.
Who sells automobiles in the Far
East-native or westerner? Mr.. Kelly
informs us that distribution is now
largely in the hands of natives, who
know the buying habits of his people
and how they are best dealt with. Par
ticularly is this true in Japan and
India where the native element is pre-
dominant in the selling field. Not so
in China and the Dutch East Indies,
however, for here the white merchant
most frequently supplants the native
Road development still acts as the
chief deterrent to automobile sales in
the Far East. In this respect contin-
entail Asia is very backward. In
China there are but 10000 miles of
vehicular roads in an area larger than
the United States. Many states in
the Union alone have more road
mileage than this. One starts for an
evening drive from most any sea-
coast city in China and winds up at
the end of the road Is miles inland.
Strange as it may appear, the pro-
tective element has been factor in
the purchase of automobiles in China.
Individuals who felt unsafe on the
streets in native quarters for fear
OF kidnapping are comparatively at
ease under the roof of closed car
This has been the incentive to buy
with many of the weather. Chinese
rickshaw and taken to the speedier
motor car.
The most conspicuous road develop
ment in the Far East has been the
island empire of Japan and the Dutch
insular possession, Java. These
countries have we'll developed road
system, linking all major cities by
modern thorougfares. The ready
pickup and easy riding qualities OF
the Essex has given it a wide dis
tribution in these islands.
IfdYel III ASldIlC COulltTIeS is w q
great extent prompted by religious
motives. In most every religious
observations require natives of the
faith to make long pilgrimages to
their sacred shrine before death.
Sometimes this pilgrimage is over q
600 miles and has to be made entirely
on foot, Far sighted automobile men
predict the day when many of these
pilgrimages will be conducted by bus
or motor vehicle.
In the main, the market uncertainty
in Asia is due to political instability
more than any other factor. Govern
mental disturbances, particularly in
China and South Central Asia, have
in the past hindered free commerce to
a marked degree. Purchasing power
in the Orient is at present concentra-
ted in the hands of native princes,
merchants and mandarins, but when a
does come, the motor car industry is
more equitable distribution of wealth
bound to receive a very liberal share
of it.
\ M i I1lx