Jan, 22.
The position of housing in Shanghai is no better than it was six months ago, if anything it is worse. The influx of residents has not ceased, and comparatively few houses have been added to the total available, so the scramble for accommodation is just as wicked as ever. Certain schemes which would have helped to alleviate the distress remain apparently where they were last autumn—still under consideration; and so long as they lack maturity what relief they would afford is still to seek. While the new arrivals are hard put to it for living room, that is not the whole tale of woe, for just as houses are scarce so are rents soaring. It is satisfactory to note that in many cases, especially where old estublished institutions having the confidence of the public are concerned, the increase is merely commensurate with the higher cost of materials and labour, the higher price which money commands and such factors which denote an augmented cost of upkeep. Unhappily this cannot be said all round, and complaints are all too common of exorbitant charges. That, in conjunction with the inadequate supply of houses, is the great evil of the moment, probably providing as flagrant an example of profiteering as is to be found here to-day. And, with this, we are in a worse position to deal with profiteering here than in most places in the world, the absence of a community of interest which every now and again makes itself felt, making it extraordinarily difficult, if not almost impossible, to obtain a remedy.
Yet laws against profiteering now exist in so many countries that the courts of most of the nations represented here would have no difficulty in finding some clause or other to apply if cases
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.