Association has requested the Ningpo Fellow countrymen's Association (0. induce the Ministry of Finance to. cancel its decision to establish a tobacco leat trading office under the Joint contro! of the Government and tobacco leat dealers. "According. 10 the Association, the Consolidated Tax Bureau of the Ministry of Finance has informed the dealers of a general Sutline of the proposed ofice as fol-Jows:—The capital shall be between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000, to be shared between the Government and merchants on a 50-30 basis, or a 40-60 basis with the merchants holding the majority "shares (ihe commerei shares are to be subscribed by Chi hose and foreign merchants evenly: opinions on the establishment of a market and its administration are 10 be advanced by the merchants; the demarcation of business districts and administration to be decided by the preparation office, and the control of tobacco leat sales' shall be frst effect Hsuchang, Honan, as an ex-
While "the Association expresses hearty support of measures for est abolishing an equilibrium between the consumption and production of tobacco leaf, the improvement of the quality of tobacco leat and other measures beneficial to the country, the merchants entertain a. suspicion that the proposed office is solely for commercial purposes, It Is argued that, with sucha big capital, the office will be able to control the market and tobacco leat prices, and the result will be disastrous to small dealers. Furthermore, tobacco factor-Yes will deal directly with the office and not the, dealers. It will also be Impossible for the dealers. to partletpate Ju the business of the office, In view of the huge capita required, Which the merchants are not in a position to furnish,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.