Japanese shopkeepers have begun reducing extortionate prices and Chinese profiteers who had mulcting the public on daily necessities and coal specially, will certainly lose custom from now on. Household coal is now obtainable at $28 per ton from Japanese dealers, whereas Chinese were charging up to $42.
The Bank (of China and The Bank of Communications. are still sealed by the Japanese naval Authorities and until these two banks are permitted te function, the others (non-government) are not in a position to do anything. The Bank of China holds about four lakhs of dollars in notes in their vaults and the Bank of Communications about $40,000, but these sums are inadequate even if they are permitted to resume operations. As the Japanese have seized these two banks who own their own buildings and the Cehtral Bank (whose premises are only leased) they will have to finance these institutions themselves if they desire them to function normally again and unless they are prepared to do this, it is difficult to see how the normal trend of business in general can be accomplished.
A proclamation hus been issued by the Rehabilitation Committee to the effect that dollar notes of the Bank of China, Bank of Communications and the Hopei Provincial Bank and yen notes of the Yokohama Specie Bank and Bank of Chosen are to be accepted at par, but the issue of this order is one thing and general acceptance by the people is another. Japanese stores are accepting yen at par- with dollars foreign banks are shy of yen notes and Central Bank of China dollar notes, which latter are also not accepted by the Japanese. Chinese shops are discounting yen nisse and some will not accept them, while the Yokohama Specie Bank is issuing their own dollar notes in exchange for yen. This chaotic condition regarding money is also receiv-ins the attention of the Japanes authorities and is a serious deterrent to the return of confidence and nor-malay.
Regarding. the wharf area, the spokesman of the special mission of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Mr. Masayoshi Satoh said:—the boom in the great harbour has been breached for a width of about 40 metres amd ships up to 2,000 tons can enter and by the end of February, it is expected that ships up to 4,000 tons will be able to do so, but when the wharves will be available for use by merchant ships under normal business conditions is still uncertain, as military requirements at the moment do not permit of a definite or even approximate date being given. To clear the harbour entirely will require another few months work and íj is the desire of the High Command 4g permit the resumption of normal corwnerce as soon as possible.
The Japanese Authorities are surveying and planning repairs to the Kiao-Tsi Raihv'ay and a bus service connecting Tsingtaó With Tsinan is also being considered.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.