Jan. 13. bringing the correspondence on the subject of the increased hotel charges in Shanghai to a close—which begins to show a tendency merely to repeat what has already gone before—may we suggest that the wider view of the whole matter has been entirely missed? It is this, that the increase of rates charged to permanent guests in Shanghai hotels has a direct effect upon the cost of living here and, consequently, an adverse effect upon the trade of the community. Before developing this point, it is necessary to state that the company operating the hotels in question has every legal right to increase the charges if it so wishes; in doing so it breaks no law of the country with which it is registered, although, undoubtedly, it lays itself open to the criticisms that have been freely aired in these columns. If, as one correspondent asserts an interim dividend of 40 per cent. has been paid recently there can be little wonder that residents in the hotels in question are unable to see that the present advances are in any way justified. And, in passing, it might be urged that the accommodation and service given in exchange for these very high charges cannot be said to excel anything given elsewhere in the Far East. At the same time, however; the admission must be made that the hotels in question are better than they were a few years ago, though whether the guests should be forced to meet the cost-of these improvements entirely or whether the company should regard these as their own investment for a better return on their money, is a matter on which individual opinions may very well be held.
The real point, however, is that there are living in Shanghai hotels a substantial number of people who, unable to find house accommodation, have been oblived to take refuge in the hotels at prices very considerably in advance of what they would pay, were they able to undertake the management of their own homes. These, in many cases, are employees of British and American firms and it is common knowledge that this enhanced cost of living has forced employers already to increase wages out of proportion to the real volume of their businesses and, in this manner, an
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