The Finance Committee of the Legislative Yuan has approved the recommendation for the imposition Jot import duty on foreign rice, ne-cording to a message received from Nanking yesterday." Classifications And rates ate to be fixed by. the Ministry of Finance. The 7ecommendation was made after' a joint conference between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Industry on the subject of imposition "of taxes on foreign ice and wheat, It was reported the follow-Ing views had been reached To prevent the importation of lange quantities of foreign ree in er to. protect native te, a. tax ust be levied on Foreign rice." The Highest impose shall' be 24." gold units per picul. "Exemption may be rand in times of famine. when the relief of famine. sufferers, On foreign supplies are required" for
the other hand, native rice should be. permitted freedom of distribu tion throughout the country and attention should be paid to storage famine and transportation s, in order that a shortage of food may not occur in any province in consequence of the Imposition of a Tew on imported 3 Govern ies during years of plenty and sell the grain' at low price in time of shortage.
Tu connection with the duty on foreign wheat, the question is regarded as more complicated, because many Chinese flour mills in the country are using foreign wheat. Wheat is the staple food of the people living in the Yellow River Tegions, and it is necessary to import foreign wheat during this flood period in order to relieve the ref-gees. Recently, international negotiations have been in progress for a wheat agreement. It must be ascertained whether this agreement would have any adverse effect on Chine. For these reasons, the au-[thorities have reserved the question of imposing a tax on foreign wheat for further discussion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.