We often say that the con: tions in China brought about by civil war, misgovernment, extort tion and all the rest of it, are an intolerable burden upon the people who produce and consume the vast bulk of the articles commerce in which lies our essential interest in the country. We know this in a general way, from our up-country—corres-ponents, from our Chinese friends, from the reaction on many lines of trade, from our own ramblings and, every little} while, from. official statements in which the sufferings the people are touchingly described as an apology for a new campaign, but, we do" not often have. statistics' to prove it. "TE un Just been brought to our attention, however, that a check is kept on the emigration from Shantung to Manchuria and that) the figures this year are an eloquent commentary upon the state of things in Shantung where] Chang Chung-chang reigns. Ord-marily the Spring emigration from Shantung ports amounts to about 260,000, of whom roughly half return at the end of the agricultural year, while the! others find work, or acquire land, or otherwise establish permanent niches for themselves and] eventually send for their famiies, if they have any. This! year, however, the early immigration totalled 500,000 and nearly every individual had with him all he owned, as well as: women, children and elders, and expressed his determination—to find a new home for himself in new territory. It is estimated that by now 800,000 have left) Shantung this year and,—since they are not going to work the! crops but to settle in Manchuria, the exodus will probably go on, throughout the summer.
road between Dairen bin is crowded with the] these people trudging their way northwards fares, living on the food provided for them in the wayside kitchens opened by the Shantung guilds, We have already mentioned that the suggested return] of the Tientsin British Concession to Chinese control has} prompted large sales of real estate and an exodus of wealthy] Chinese to Dairen. We now hear that the Japanese are taking a census of these emigré: and that they have already listed fifty odd officials of the rank—former president:
executives. cabinet ministers, civil governors, Tuchuns, Tupans. and the like—who have' shifted their investments from Tientsin, to the Liaotung leased territory. From the south we have no figures as yet, but we know that} emigration to the Straits, the Dutch East Indies, the Philip pines and other havens of rest from every port between Shanghai and the Annam border is [pronounced phenomenal by the authorities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.