Sm—N. 8. C. alludes to President Harding's "presidential—campaign. Well, I hope that China will have Detter luck. The tration certainly was not so hot, It's only wise not to go, into details, 'With regard to the "victory parade," wish N.S, C. that this "distant" may be shorter' than that to the well Amown comer behind which prosper ity fs hidden, 'Perhaps N. S. C. could let me know, it this "not so far distance" is measured by long or short lis—I certainly would Lke to attend the victory parade, but I fear my steamer won't wait' so_ long.
T appreciate N. S, C. "sense of modesty" and I apologize, but I. was only thinking about the poor Chinese people of low "social standing" whose suffering grips my heart, 'Well, so long and all my best! wishes' for the suffering "poor to whom goes all my sympathy.
Shanghai, Oct. 31.
Sm—I am the tenant of a flat in tone of the old apartment houses in Rue Moliere, a place which many Shanghailanders would merely sneeze at considering the modern buildings Which have sprung up in the course Jor the last few years, Our hot water system is so much out of date that if tone of my neighbours decides have a bath in the morning I have to wait patiently for my turn. Quite often my cook has to heat sufficient Jwater to enable me to shave, Lately ]we have had an incursion of rats due to the ancient construction of the house, and the electric wiring has made' me buy more globes in one Jmonth than another place would re~ Jquire in a year. The flooring has got to the stage that we have to walk Jen tiptoe in order not to disturb our frelghbours in the apartment below. The locality 1s more or less peaceful. spart from a few howling dogs and Jo. musician who has rent the alr on his saxophone with the same dismal note throughout the summer. Since the rental up to now has been rea-Jsonable we have put up with the above mentioned inconveniences and fow others not mentioned. But the agents for our landlord, a well-known and highly respectable firm Jot lawyers in this city, recently informed the other tenants and myself that from November 1 the rent would be increased. And it was not:
small item either! I suppose they: thought they might as well make a job of it since the increase in my ease amounts to 33 per cent. Decid-Jing that an increase was fair under the circumstances I wrote and offered to contribute with a reasonable percentage to my landlord's coffers; but my offer received no written reply. On November 1, I mailed my Jcheque and added what even the [Shanghai Municipal Council consid-Jers @ reasonable increase; but my Jeheque was returned with a curt not reiterating the 33 per cent. in-
T know there are innumerable cases, Stanghal, both in the International 'Settlement and in the French Con-Jcession, where owners are taking an unfair' advantage of the present. shortage of apartments and houses, Jond I am wondering just how long it will be before tenants will wake and take some action in the matter. It ought not to be so dificult {10 form a 'Tenants' Association and. ght against a situation which in }my country, and in any other decent country, would not be tolerated by the authorities. Personally I have nade up my mind that unless my respectable firm of lawyer-landlord-Jagents can see their way to be reason-fable T shall do my best, or worst, as the case may be, to fight'a most unfair and arbitrary action on their part.
Maybe there are still some tenants with suficfent backbone and energy left willing to bestir themselves and form an Association which some day will be an absolute necessity unless they continue to remain suckers, Kor, [Shanghai, Nov, 3.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.