But in one direction, namely the cost of living, the population has been rely seriously affected. Prices have risen steeply. Owing to the interrupt tion of oilway communiestions imported goods have not been coming Ju, and shopkeepers have been putting up their prices accordingly, while owing, to the closing of the elly gates andthe fighting going on in the have been chary. the maltreatment of their nationals in Peiping. This to put it mildly, is certainly 'a gross exaggeration.' I ha heard of no serious Instances. The Japanese military attache who brought this up, as one of the reasons for the Japanese troop movements ince the clash, was unable to give any details and when challenged by foreign correspondents shuffled out of it by saying that the eases were too many for him to enumerate. "And a certain member of the Japanese Embassy admitted to some journalists that. considering the circumstances, there had been remarkably few cases of assaults on Japanese and that the Chinese authorities had given very full protection,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.