After the outbreak of Spanish influenza in 1918 and the subsequently mild recurrence of it in the following year, the impression was created, whether by medical men or not, that the countries affected might consider themselves immune for many years fo come, Apparently this is not altogether so, for onca more it is rife on the borders of Germany, and of necessity there! must be fears of a spread to adjoining countries. If we remember aright, the epidemic attacked Germany very carly, in fact very short-Jy after its original appearance in pain, and speculation was rife whether its occurrence did not delay the big offensive of 1915. Judging by the way in which it could put whole battalions hors de combat—and that many months after the original severity had abated—such may well have been the, case. That, however, is getting away from the point, for the matter of importance to the world is when ther this is to be the beginning of another universal scourge. In one of his works addressed to "Na ture's rebel son" Sir Ray Lankestor has told us that we ought to be spending our money on preparations to fight epidemics rather than on many of our present and although ho was. partieniars alluding to ravages among iis tribes of Africa, he would certainly not exclude a contingency of this sort from his calculations, Prices in Shanghai in the United Kingdom nee slowly While the general love i receding, in common with those of Giller Leading countries of the World, no similar movement is to be seen in Shanghai, judging by the nly barometer of such things available here—the Bureau Markets index figures. The Buresa oxan functioning as a. statistical body in September, 1919, when it took as a basis for wholesale prices Bere the figure of 100. Since then some changes have been made in the method of determining the figures, but presumably the general result is not-vitally different for the pur-Poses of comparison. What we find is that whereas 100 represented the Tevel of commodity prices in September, 1919, it is to-day 109.9—an appreciable increase. Cereals, which include rice, wheat, peas, beans, sesamum seed and groundnuts, are up to 119.3, while other food products (covering meat, fish, fags, sugar ete.) come to 112.3 These show the movements of wholesale prices, but we know that retail quotations, when the trend is upward, never lag far behind-hand. The bright spot is to be found under the heading of fuels (comprising eight different kinds, of coal, charcoal, firewood, candles,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.