That the government 2s now ce stituted will be inclined to give the merchants fair play hardly is to be doubted. What the merchants are afraid of, though, is that, its house divided, the government cannot long endure. Because of that fact, the Chamber of Commerce is having a strenuous tims, trying to get the shopkeepers to invest in their quota the loan which the Chamber has undertaken to raise, to be used to} pay off the Hongkong-Shameen, strikers, The minority members in the government, the former "reds" who have "surrendered," and have pro-mized to be nice little boys, once! again are getting bolder. The Provineial Government is in their, control, and there is _constar battling between this and the Muni cipal Government, which is d ly anti-Communist. The latest little stunt pat on by the provincial; authorities may be appreciated by! the more ignorant among the Peasants, but hardly will be viewed favourably by landowners, Three laws, all of which have a punch that hits the land proprietors right in the face, have been passed. The: first provides that taxiners rent land from others need not pay their rent on the due date, but may pay Tater on, the law being very in-' definite as to when the owners shall paid—if ever. From time immemorial, there have been go-betweens' who have -found tenants for farmers who do not till their own fields, these middle-men at the same time serving as guarantors for the. payment of the xent. Now they are-to be-non-extent inthe eyes of the-law, All transactions must be directly between landlord and tenant... Most vicious of all is the third law, which provides that a rentee-may not be ousted from
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.