AAs Shanghai tackles the situation now eon-fronting it the importance of dealing promptly and effectively with the refugee problem has been recognized. Recognition oes not carry solution, for the complicating factors are many..-Tt is vital to appreciate ther; otherwise sation or inaction may make matters worse, "Roughly. there are" about 120,000 unemployed and destitute people. In the various camps. Sustenance is being ranged for them and itis estimated that funds tay" permit' their support onthe bares, margin for six months. About 600,000 persons acme way or another, are living on. the individual. generosity of friends, of Kindly citizens whose economic resources are already' Strained' and. who. consequently cannot be expected to dispense this private charity for fu Indefille period. Indeed, in n very abort time many of these charitably-minded folk will themselves become destitute or, at any Fate, in sore. straits. The severity. of the distress has been revealed by a census taken Ju the French Concession where it has been computed. that 4,800 people are actually sleeping out in the streets without any means Of subsistence, The figures for the tnfernational Settlement have not boon ascertained, They probably would reach a total of something "ike 8000. The. normal. industrat population at work in the Settlement 185,000—ihat is fo say in factories and work shops alone and leaving out of account persons engaged in commerce and trade. "Thanks te the recent cessation of fighting, factories and Workshops in the Western and Northern dis-{iets have made a gradual, but definite return to activity. "'Mhere are about 80,000 workers again in employment. Reports show That the figure is mounting but the pace must he. painfully: slow. So, apart, from other forms of labour, there are about 135,000 indlstrlal hands out of work." Thole power of Fesistance to the ceonomie stain. of nem ployment and rising prices is daily being] reduced.
Undoubtedly the chiot means of easing the situation is t@ be found in the repatration refugees from discus, especially the Beasants and farmers who were formerly in the areas over which Ube tide of battle has rolled. The various organizations responsible for evacuation have already done much. They cannot proceed as rapidly as they would like because of the war conditions prevailing outside, "If only the former inhabitants of What is Known as the Pootung area could induced to return to. their villages. a double service would be rendered, They would thus cease fo be a burden on Shanghai and they "would" themselves asst" in relieving Shanghai's difficulties by resuming the Cultivation of crops and £0, casing the food Situation," "The Japanese" authorities are aware of this requirement and it is mainly {o them that the organizations must look for assistance in stimulating repatriation. Fear of guerrilla warfare springing up in the Seeupied territory is understood to be absessing the Japanese command. tis nature, actually those who know the mentality of the people of the Pootung and other suburban
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.