Appointment of Investigators Said to be the Cause Considerable consternation exi in Chinese circles over. the threat local rice merchants to. suspend business today if a satire factory" assurance is not forthcoming from. Nanking. that they, the merchants, will not constantly interfered with in their business, From reports available, it would appear. that. the authorities "have appointed investigators. to examine Hee which is transported from one place to. another and to collect a fax in connection therewith. This trothed had proved to. be nothing Jess than a nuisance, according. to the merchants, who claim that they fre seltering hardships as a result, They had no alternative, they say, but to suspend business today i€ the authorities fal to withdraw the investigators.
'Upon hearing of the merchants' éeelsion, the Kiamgsu Arsocinted Chambers of Commerce at once telegraphed to Shanghai promising. to send delegates to appeal to the Government to ask for the with: drawal of the investigators and revesting the merchants to. postpone action until. further matico 3S, they say, there are mum-trous Communists about waiting for an opportunity to cause trouble and. if the threat is put into effect, these men will not hesitate to take advantage of it Joint Action Against Attempt to Levy New Taxes 1 appears that the Kiangsu Provincial Government has imposed am Addiional' fcc. above all other charges of 20 cents per picul on all flee moving" from port to port. This fee Is collected for the purpose of covering examination charges Tice at-an effec in Nantao and resented bythe rice merchants cause they abject to the general principle of "increasing business Esxes, particularly when such into Fonitlons are made" without con The merchants had planned ty clone their shops on the 7th but on the advice of the" Labourers, Peasants and. Merchants. Union, they have postponed drastic action tant the 100h who ronly from the Pro ment.
So far as could be learned in Chinese circles yesterday, the real objection ie not to the examination fee, but to. the opening of. ths examination office, which the mer. chonta rogard_ as' official intorferfence with a commodity of trade and likely to involve them in constant, conflicts with officials. The Chinese merchants believe that rice should be permitted to move freely with out oficial interference, They also believe that although the fee now small, once an examination office has been established, any bureau cratic measures may be devised to interfere with them and that they. will some day be required to pay: larger suma to end official imposi-Hons on their trade. They are therefore attacking the plan al very inception, is generally believed that the Kiangaw Provincial Government will cancel the regulations for the onganizaticn of this rice examination office within the next two da The Tax Taken Nanking, Mur. 8 a meeting recently held by the Kiangsu Provincial Government decided (1) that the examination fee on the rice merchants be cancelled; and (2) that any officer connected with the Rice Examination Bureau who should have been found unreasonable or acting illegally in performing his official duties shall be punished in, accordance with law.—Kuo Forty-two censors have beer appointed by the local Chinese for service at the Post As the Nationalist Government insists that the joss-paper shops should pay a 12.5 per cent. tax on all goods sold, they have decided to suspend business, and 49_ shops failed t open their doors-ou: Thursday, leaving 2.250 persons without employment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.