Your journey will have given you 8 good iden of the vasiness of the territories of which Wuhan isthe natural centre and your experience {ells you of the strenuous efforts now being made by the Chinese Govi ment, in the face of enormous al ules, to Infuse new life and vigour {nfo this ancient and great nation, Reconstruction is in the air. We realize the diMeutties of our Chinese friends in recasting and reorganizing their social, business and political structures 16 cope with modern com= petitive conditions, We hope that fortune will favour them in their fine endeavours. We also fully sympathize with the saeriflees which the Chinese people are frequently called upon to "face in consequence of this mentation. national reconstruction and experl-
"Bul we too feel for ourselves' when we suiter in the course of some of their experiments. We are clad to record our appreciation of the way In which one such experiment. the SAD. S—the former British Conession—Has been conducted under the enlightened guidance of those to shoun its destiny has been entrusted.
The Municipality of Greater Hankow under Mayor Dr. K. C. Wu has also shown rapid improvement.
The municipal machine has indeed developed such momentum that once anam Hankow. has been selected as China's experimental station, and this time we find ourselves the frst International centre where a large-scale introduction of "the new National Land Law—with its previo sions for land. tax, assessment and expropriation—is being made. This touches us very closely and we hope Dr. Wu will succeed in earring his complicated and dimeult task commercial development and con Adence which in recent years have already suffered so severely.
We are not obstructive and we haven common concern with our Chinese friends in what affects the Teconstruction of Hankow {0 sult modern requirements. But we ask for reasonable conditions and We feel that British and foreign merchants are making a. substantial and valuable contribution to the prosperity of this centre'and we con sequently "note" with regret and brotest that foreign imports here and in Changsha are made to bear a rear deal more than a fair share of
of which our Chamber has already the dyke taxes, about the incidence addressed you. Flood prevention work has to be pald for and dykes are 'a necessary part, and only a art of such work, but their cost should. be spread equitably, rency problems on the Yangtze are problems which obtain course elsewhere, but nowhere have floods arented more widespread damage and misery.
To overcome these dangers very large sums of money have been spent dyke building. "t "have already ouched upon the dyke tax and would now voice the opinion that a proper administration should be "set placing the conservancy of this river under national care and making national charge: IE this Is going too fast at least the river should be under one control.
T should take this opportunity to mention here another serious hard ship from which we suffer and one which has far-reaching repercussions. T refer to the delay in the execution of Chinese Court orders. Tt isnot for us, who are sfercantiie guests of a friendly China' to complain of her laws. Our quarrel is not with her modern laws which seem {0 be on the whole admirable, nor with the Judgments rendered, but with the law's delays,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.