The British Dyestuffs Corporation and other firms in Great Britain are carrying out a large amount of research work and taking out many patents for new products and processes, the best possible sign of the vitality of the industry, A case in point is the development during the past two or three years of a range of entirely, new dyes for "Celanese" or acetate silk, a new variety. of artificial silk, the progress of which had been hindered by the diffi culty of dyeing it satisfactorily. In this direction the British dyestuff manufactur ers are probably ahead of the rest of the world to-day. Important discoveries have also been made in Great Britain in connexion with fast "vat" dyes.
In the last decade the dyestuit industry has taken on a new lease of life in the country of its birth. It has had to face and has overcome big problems and cliff culties, That its future is assured is a matter for extreme satisfaction, for this industry has come to be recognized as pre-eminently a "key" industry, essential to the country's welfare in peace and vital to its security in war, The Business Life of Peking (Continued om Page 60) the water carriers' guild. Other workers along traditional lines who could not adapt themselves to new environments were the dealers in native cloth, the old-style money changers and tobacconists, id, ay has been recounted,' the dealers in building mater Purely native cloth is now in very little demand, and, instead, foreign made cloth or native cloth ade in foreign style is required by the lower classes for making their coarse garments. But the sale of foreign style cloth brings in a very small margin of profit, end in consequence these dealers are now turning to the retailing of mi cellancous foreign goods.
Before the Republic there were over two hundred shops selling native tobacco and exchanging money, but now only a quarter of them remain in existence. At these combination tobacco shops and banks, silver sycee could be exchanged, and they aleo issued bank notes and drafts. Meet of them have had to close down on account of the competition of the currency notes issued by the Republican government in replacement of silver bullion as a medium of exchange. Moreover, the other side of their business activities, the selling of tobacco, is now very much at a discount in consequence of the growth of cigarette smoking throughout the country.
Some of these old guilds enforced the most rigorous discipline on their members. Their officers were empowered to punish younger members on conviction of violating the important rules of the association, and the bamboo was used in a measure corresponding to the degree of the guilt established. After the establishment of the Republic, however, the police denied the guilds the right of corporal punishment, and insisted on the employment.of the fine system in all cases of offence against guild regulations.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.