In respons to this invitation delegates have arrived from various parts of the country, from places within the Yangtze region as well as from distant sections of the country. The number of delegates who have reported themselves has Already exceeded one hundred. The convention having had its proparatory meeting on December 16 wae formally opened on Saturday and will remain in session for a week or provides for a series of entertain-monts and visits of inspection, the' hosts of the successive banquets of welcome being respectively the Gentral. Chamber. of Commerce of] Shanghai, the Shanghai City Cham. ber of Commerce, Chapel Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Cotton Merchants' Association, the Shang-Thai Bankers' Association, the Chinese Bankers' Guild, the Associated Stock & Produce Bxchanges, the Commercial Press, the Chung' Hun Book Ca, and the China United Assurance Company. The tours of Snspection will include visits to the Wing On Cotton Mill, the various Departments of the new Municipality of Greater Shanghai, the Cotton Merchants" Exchange," and the Commercial Press works. tions accomplished in' days" when the due effect, little has been! spirit of rapprochement was lacking between the people and. the mili taristie. regime under which they "The Nationalist Government be-jing the government of the people means the Inauguration of a new of practical optimism for the merchants who "are" beset with troubles which the Government. {n'a position to alleviate. On ac-Jeount' of military' movements "and the activities of communists the merchants have been hard hit. But} since the political situation affects the trader at every. turn, Tmorchante could not sce any saner course for assuring themselves new epoch of reconstruction in the field of commerce than to aid wholehhearledly the revolutionary ™movement 20 that national reunifeation and rehabilitation may be brought about with the least possible delay. The merchants have by no means forgotten that they would be of Title use to society were it not for the work of the "farming ai industrial population. They are therefore equally concerned over the welfare of the masaes. The present [convention aces two things: alleviation of the sufferings of the business rman and the success of the evolu ary campaign of the Nationalist Government."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.