Exceedingly disquieting. reports have been current in business circles within the past few weeks, and among Chinese piece goods dealers several failures have occurred. Others, it is stated, are in prospect, although it has to be borne in mind that the prevailing business depression is causing these dealers to surrender before the assault on their financial integrity has actually been made. But without doubt the situation is sufficiently serious, and there are indications that the process of adjusting con+ ditions to the new levels necessitate ed by the war is not going to be carried through without a more or less sharp dislocation of business. In_ respect of this China is no different to the rest of the world, but as we have pointed out in our weekly market reports, factors peculiar to the country tend to make the situation' especially difficult. These, taken in conjunction with conditions of a worldwide nature, have operated to retard the process of readjustment, and in 2 degree are responsible for the seriousness of the present outlook.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.