Tt was common talk in Shanghai before I left that the Japanese wer treating the Chinese badly, At Weishien there was no evidence of this, As I pointed out in writing from there the troops were kept strictly to the—railway line, Twas in the city for two days and never saw a Japanese soldier inside the walls or anywhere near them. At Kiaochow the situation was different. Parties of Japanese troops wandered about the city apparently at will: nd T heard stories from a resident foreigner of theft, theft of chickens, eggs, vegetables and occasionally of animals. On the road between Kiaochow and here I heard similar stories from the Chinese themselves, and_ since T have seen small cases of theft (for example, of vegetables) with own eyes, Moreover, I have passed through villages almost deserted, I use the house in which T am living as though it were my own and I have ceased to count thatched roofs: damaged by shell fire, All this not, everybody will agree, a pretty picture.
Another side of the Picture, But there is another side to it. Between here and Hsiaowangpuchuang, a distance of roughly five miles, there are in round numbers 1,000'Chinese in receipt of good, daily wages. In Tsimo and neighbourhood, to the north, there are close on' 5,000 enjoying the same advantage. What the nimbers are at other places which the Japanese occupy I cannot say, but wherever Chinese labour is being employed it is being paid for and well paid, The average rate of wages for coolie labour in Shantung' in peace time is, as far as I can gather (I speak subject to the correction of missionaries and others with years of knowledge), from thirty to forty Mexican cents per day. The average rate which the Japanese are paying is Mexican cents fifty; the maximum rate rising to seventy conte; a road maker (and road-making repre sents the principal form of manual labour under present cond tions) gets sixty, These are official figures given to me by the Japanese authorities and verified by my ow investigations made without the knowledge. The money is paid over every evening in war notes of Y10, Ys, Vu, Ys0, Y.20 and Y.10__redeemable at par (in bundles totalling not less than Y.1) in silver at Tsimo, Kinochou, Weihsien, Lao. iby G
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.