Two news items in the "Asahi Shimbun," the influential Tokyo newspaper, are of interest in relation to the financial side of the Japanese campaign in China, One states that a Japanese soldier, formerly a geologist, picked up fragments {rom: a rock struck by Chinese shells at Yangsin and found they contained gold, The samples were sent to Japan for analysis to seo if, in the midst of war, a gold mine has been discovered. A more certain method of finding gold, or its equivalent, is contained in. the second item which states that the Bank of Japan is to withdraw its notes used for paying military expenses in Central China and' "war notes" will be used. Four branch offices are to be established at Shanghai, Nanking, Hangchow and Soochow for: this purpose and the [plan will be extended to South China as the fcompaign in that district progresses. This is Jominous news for a large section of a country already impoverished by military operations. If it means' that the war notes will be paid to the troops for purchases through canteens oF regular army institutions in the nature of token money there can be no objection, but if jit means that occupied territory is to be flood-Jed with notes which can be produced for the Jasking by. merely accelerating the printing press the consequences will be serious. The public will await with interest publication of further details because {t isnot so many months ago that the establishment. of the Federated Reserve Bank in North China with fan ample supply of bank notes menzced the [Shanghai market although the situation, in the meantime, has been corrected.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.