Feb. 25.
The past week found the piece goods dealers all back to work again and cager for business, but, unfortunately, a greater trouble than exchange difficulties, indifferent supplies, unfavourable weather, or any of the usual impediments expected at certain seasons has come along. This is the war cloud in the Yangtze Valley and the uncertainty as to whether, when and where it will break is proving disastrous. Hankow, Changsha and other merchants in the threatened zone who have had previous experience of Tooting naturally do not care to hold large stocks if there is a possibility of fighting, and prefer for the time being to do a hand-to-mouth business. The yarn market is said to be very good and_ cotton steady. The business exporters had been hoping for with a drop in exchange has not yet materialized, but there has been more inquiry and the situation is reported to be a little better than it has been lately.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.