November 8.
To-morrow afternoon shareholders in Shanghai rubber companies have been asked to meet to discuss what may be called in general terms " the rabber position " and, if conditions are held to require such a stap, to appoint a working committee to consider what practical measures cun be taken to relieve the present situation locally connected with the rabber industry. There can be little doubt thet the consensus of ublic opinion holds that the existing state of affairs is exceedingly unsatisfactory. Shanghai has invested a very large sum of money in rabber shares; all these shares are now quoted at figures much below the prices ruling in the first half of the year, while the bulk of them are actually below their par value. Moreover these shares, for the most part, are not negotiable us collateral security, and could probably not be disposed of at any price in very large quantities. Among the scrip suffering from this slump and the prevalent un-linty is that of several companies in a perfectly sound commercial position. The public, however, has no confidence in the statements made regarding such companies, because the exaggerated optimism engendered by the boom has given lace to boundless pessimism regarding the whole rubber industry. At the same time there sis the inevitable shortage of ready-money
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.