Plea for "Small Man"
To the Editor of the "NonrH-CHINA Dairy News"
Sm,—Your leader for to-day seems to me to be extremely moderate and constructive—it is up to all of us to rally round the Council—that is ourselves, and see that the settlement carries on.
The advice to pay Council obligations promptly must however apply principally to the smaller men and businesses, the large firms have reserves and resources and will probably have much less difficulty in meeting their debts.
Now in troublesome times like these it is the small man who inevitably suffers most—with a small business completely stopped—with a small and shrinking income and much increased ability due perhaps to semi-enforced evacuation of his family, where is he going to find the wherewithal to meet his debts?
One point seems to me to have been omitted in recent discussions on this subject and that is landlords and rentals. A cataclysm such as has overtaken Shanghai means that many of the retail businesses have come almost to a standstill and there is no prospect of their being able to seë recovery.
Under these circumstances are the landlords to ask for and get fil rental while the poor tenant has to pay his rent and taxes in full for property from which he gets no use or benefit?
One hears of landlords who absolutely decline to discuss the mat-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.