White Cleaner and Shoe Creams hides, the chief exports of the port, were almost completely at a stand still These articles come most North China, Moreover, there is said to be a division of opinion as to its merits within their own ranks. from Potow and Suiyuan. By means of forced sales, by forcing the new Meng Chic>g (Mongolian. State) notes on the market, by currency restriction for those regions, by a stem of experi permits, and by the control of freight cars, the Japanese have practically monopolized the whole of the exports from the Mongolian border districts which sre the main source of Tientsin ex-
The army, backing the Bank of Chosen, is supposed to be anxious to push the new currency to any lengths, whereas the Yokohama Specie Bank and the larger Japanese firms are in favour of more cautious action. Ty is a significant commentary On the effect that the exchange control laws in Japan are having on their China business, that Japanese firms in Tientsin have been apports, As a result, to quote the excellent report of the British Chamber of Commerce, "large areas of North China whence Tientsin draws its supplies of -wool, skins, furs and hides, are now virtually shut off from Tientsin. This state of affairs may end in the permanent diversion of trade from the more distant parts (Kansu and the Tibetan borders) to other countries, such as India and Soviet Russia."
Trade in Tientsin was being further hindered by the uncertainty proaching certain foreign banks to provide them with the necessary exchange to cover their imports into China from abroad, as they are unable to obtain it from their own banks.
In Tientsin one heard nothing of ihe large-scale development of trade and industries in North China, about which one reads almost daily in the Japanese press and in certain foreign papers. And ip is generally believed that nothing is likely to take actual shape in this direction for some time to come. with regard to the future of the currency. When I was there, there was the strange state of affairs, that the Tientsin dollar was being quoted at a discount by the foreign banks, with better rates obtainable from the Bank of China, The general opinion, however, seemed to be that there was not likely to be any spectacular or immediate change in the currency situation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.