Burma Road
At the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, he was appointed the Director of the South-West Transportation Administration in Singapore. This led to becoming the Director of the China-Burma Transportation Administration based in Yangon. In both positions, he was charged with the supervision of the construction and operation of the 717 mile (1,154 km.) Yunnan-Burma Road (known as the Burma Road), through which China received the bulk of supplies in its fight against the Japanese during World War II until 1942. All ports on the coast of China had been taken by the Japanese, so the Burma Road was the only over-land route available to China.