Last night, Chinese merchants entertained Marshal Li and his party at dinner and speeches were made by leading Chinese business men on the necessity for a stable government in Canton and a trade revival in this part of the country, to which the Marshal made a suit able reply. It is understood that, in private conversations between the Chinese gentry and their guest, the former made known their views on the trade outlook in Hongkong, and what they expect of the Canton government. Chinese merchants hope that Canton will clear out the Bandits and Communists, reduce the number of soldiers for' the sake of retrenchment, raise the banknotes of the Central Bank to. par, abandon the anti-northern expedi-than, and ce-operate with the pub-ie in turning' Kuangtung into a model province suitable for the Vestments of returned emigrants. In this way, the Hongkong public directly or indirectly will receive great benefit, and the prosperity of South China will be well assured.
Canton at present has no less than 50,000 troops. Efforts are being made to stabilize the depreciated notes but nothing further is known with regard to the reported loan from a Hongkong bank to be used as reserve for these notes, though they have risen to 40 cents to a paper dollar, The Hongkong Chinese think very little about General Chiang Kai-shek's grandiose dri Peking, which is too far away. What they want is a peaceful Kuangtung and ce-operation between Chinese and foreigners to develop the province. There is a rumour that, during his recent visit, Sir Miles Lampson convinced Canton of the desirability of linking up the Kowloon-Canton and Canton-Hankow Roth that city.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.