It has been persistently rumoured here and these rumours have also been "exported" to the effect that the local Municipal authorities are receiving a monthly subsidy from millowners in Japan to protect and prevent damage to their property here and on broaching the matter to those concerned, your correspondent was emphatically informed that these rumours are malicious lies spread to discredit the Mayor, who has been doing his best to preserve peace and order. However, if and when the necessity arises, it is the opinion that he will perforce, have to follow out his line of duty as circumstances dictate.
All banks, Chinese and foreign, are functioning normally and have not been closed and there has been no panic as was mentioned in some of the papers recently. On the Ist of this month, vessels alongside the wharves were ordered to clear and anchor in the outer harbour after sunset as a precautionary measure, but this order was rescinded the following day. One of the North China papers of the 13th carried an alleged statement by a Japanese Consular spokesman to the effect that Admiral Shen was "overwhelmed" by communist influences which had entered into and were operating in Tsingtao, but this news does not seem to be founded on fact.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.