Owing to the general lack of law and order, there are many instances where the actual tenant of a house is extracting full rentals for accommodation he has sublet, and yet pays little or nothing to the owner. The only remedy, in a case of this sort, is for the owner to take Court proceedings and obtain an eviction order. If this is done, the actual tenant, in the majority of cases, absconds overnight, leaving the owner to deal with several undesirable sub-tenants who have already paid for their accommodation. The owner also finds, with dismay, that the eviction order obtained cannot be made to apply to these sub-tenants who continue to remain in peaceful occupation. Had the owner applied to the Court for-a sealing order as against an order for eviction in the first place, the confusion would have been even greater, for the simple reason that it is quite impossible for anyone to ascertain, with accuracy, what part of the contents belong to the actual tenants and and what part to the sub-tenants. If by any chance success is achieved in this detail, and the contents are sorted out, Seized and sold, the proceeds thus obtained are so trivial that they barely cover the cost of the legal proceedings. This sort of thing has been experienced in many parts of Shanghai for some time and present conditions can only result in further complications.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.