New Way of Extorting Money in Clithese Territory A new case of "graft" has recently I¥ been brought to the attention of foreigners who require Chinese licences for, motor vehicles. Renewal of these licences at the present time Chinese registration bateaux borings to light the fact that two small notices had appeared in Chinese papers, one being, it is under~ stood, the "Shun Pao," calling the attention of whoever might have been, fortunate enough to have seen them to the regulation that all renewals were to have been made between, October 16 and 31. Failure to comply with this, the announcement of which reached' so: small a fraction of the general'publie, both Chinese and foreign, as to make it negligible, resulted in fines.
A fine of $6 was imposed private vehicles, $240 on hire oF public cars, 60 cents on rieshas and 40 cents on-bieyelee, Agno single instance of an application for' renewal is on record during the period. set forth, the revenue which the Nationalist authorities expect' to draw from the new thx or fine" ly understood t0 be large.
Other so-called: innovations itt the motor car department is anew regu. ation that all cars must pose inspection before they can get a licence. According to a Chinese informant' who bad occasion to ques tion the new regulation, it is being carried out in theory along the same Jines as that employed by the Shang-hal Muniefpal Council. Actially, however, two forms of inspection are one through, one being a vigorous lowing of the horn of the car and the other a switching on and off of lights to the satisfaction of the officials, who then issue a licence, provided all fines, ete,, are paid, A hig: licence plate ix alto being iakue instead of the small dise used hitherto, the Intter being placed over the large plate, Crowds of Chinese wishing to re-ister appeared ut the offices in Chinese territory yesterday, but an me ufficoney of the now forms to be filled in kept the line waiting for several hours, during which time many of the '"fine-payers" lett, including the Chinese who was attempting to renew his foreign
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.