Oct. a1, Judging by certain reports appearing in papers in other countries, one is perhaps justified in the assumption that it has become rather more than a fashion to attribute the worst of motives to Shanghai, This fashion is by no means confined to the business of armed outrages and gambling, but the tendency might almost seem to be to attribute Machiavel tives not only to those engi in' business but to foreign officialdom as well. As an instance of this a report appearing recently in the "Japan Advertisex" may be quoted. Japan expects a bumper rice crop this year, and naturally has been looking forward to doing a profitable business with China, where difficulties of transport on account of civil war have made the supply of rice in var-Jous consuming centres uncertain, Then, however, comes the rub, for it is announced that the Social Affairs Bureau of Greater Shanghai has asked the Government to prohibit the import of Japanese rice on account of: the certainty that "it will destroy the national economy of China." Upto this point the "Advertiser" ison safe ground,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.