Trade, Some time ago, Mr. Shen Jenyi, Chairman of the Nantao Cotton Merchants' Guild, was requested by the Nantao Chamber' of Com: merce, by order of the Prefect of Shanghai, to persuade all cotton merchants to pay the registration tax and obtain certificates of regis tration without delay, At first the merchants demurred, arguing that as there were foreign cotton hongs at Nantao also, the tax should not be levied on them alone, especially as such foreign hongs enjoyed the same. privileges og the Chinese. The Prefect of Shanghai promised to lay their views before thy Diplomatic Officer and another meeting—was held by the Chinese merchants at their Guild on Monday. Mr. Shen, the Chairman, said that Chine-e merchants had already had to pay the " Lieonee Tax'? for their right to do business: but now they were ordered to pay the " Registration Tax" and re return the certificate of registration. thought that as the question. in-Ived the: finances of thy country, he would ack all Chinese merchants to submit to the order those foreigners who opened hongs and were trading in the interior contravention of the treaty, he said, the merchants should—leave the matter in the hands of—the March 25.
Sino-Japanese Relations, According to telegrams from the south, hatred of the Japanese appears to be of even greater intensity there than in the north. The reports of the despatch by Japan of troops to Tientsin, Hankow, Shantung and Fukien have infuriat ed the Cantonese almost to the point of frenzy. The southerners are said to be preparing to resist the Japanese by force. It is a curious fact that an exodus of Japanese merchants in Canton has been going on for some days, as if something untoward were going to happen.
General Chang Hsin, Inspector-General of the Yangtze provinces, has addressed several telegrams to the hich authorities of Canton and of other provinces. In one of these, he alluded to the humiliation to proper authorities. who would doubtless settle it ina diplomatic way.
The tax for registration was then unanimously accepted by all Chinese cotton merchants.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.