Landlord State Their Case; "Public Has Jumped) to Hasty and Largerly Erroneous Conclusion"
Shanghai, Apr. 8. 66 so often happens, the general public has jumped to a hasty—and, to a very large extent, wrong—conclusion and is now taking a somewhat exaggerated view of the whole thing, said the manager of the property company concerned in the course of an interview with the "North-China Daily News" on the subject of the recent correspondence and the leading article appearing in this journal on the subject of "Rents and Exchange."
The repre-senti ive of the company concerned went on to express the point of view of landlords in the pre Dealing Mest of all with the letter to tenants that started the correspondence, he said that it should, primarily, be noted that it was dédressed to monthly tenants and to monthly tenants only. "These ten-fants consisted in some cases of people who had refused to accept leases, and had insisted on remaining on a monthly basis.
"hat letter really only amounts to a general warning that rents may have to be raised in the near future," he went on, "and it should be noted thal the circular contained the words reserved the right of adjusting the rental in proportion to the deprecia ion of the parity with sterling an the U.S. Dollar."
Everything else in Shanghai, both necessaries and luxuries, had gone up and had been "up" for some months past, with Uttle complaint from Shanghai residents, But, now that the landlords had found that an} increase in rental might soon be necessary, some tenants were adopt Inga mot unreasonable attitude, Suggestion Rldieuted Suggestions that tenants now pay-ug, for instance, $100 a month might, accordance with the terms of the circular, suddenly find themselves forced to pay a "rental of $1,425"—assuming that exchange dropped to penny—he ridiculed, "In the first place, it should be obvious that no landlord is going to charge rents he cannot possibly hope to secure But, apart from that real point is that a sudden raising ut the ent to such a figure is impracticable and absurd:
"What could and might happen would be that at the beginning of the month—rents, you must remember, are payable it advance, although collecting them is often a different matter altogether—the landlord would inform his tenant that the monthly rent would have to be ad-Justed." If the tonant felt that this Wag unreasonable, he would have simple recourse—he could give circumstances, particularly in con Inection with the location of its properties in the' French Concession "was now able to give their shareholders any return. Several of them were forced to borrow money {0 pay debenture and bank interests, Costs Increasing 'AL the present time there were no large, modera buildings earning more than a net revenue of 3 to 4 per cent, of their values (plus the assessed value of the land), and on. Chinese properties the returns were Jgenetally considerably less, Yee the Jcost_ of maintaining these' buildings, keeping them in a state of repair redecorating them periodically, and 150 on, had increased and costs' were sill "increasing, "particularly" with the drop in exchange, Indeed, had the landlords of Shang hai actually been the profiteers they were made out to be, their chance came "when the local hostilities started, Houses, apartments, and. flats were then in great demand, and wealthy Chinese were offering anywhere' up to a thousand dollars '"key-money" in their attempts 10 Jget the accommodation they desired, Livery landlord in. Shanghai, how-naturally refused to accept fany such money."
'Summing up, he said that the letter to tenants was sent out at a time when the exchange market was jin an extremely shaky condition jand no one knew, what was going to happen next. This circular' was Jsent out to monthly tenants as a reminder that they could not expect rents to stay as they were, no matter ]what happened to the Chinese dollar, Jor how high maintenance and other costs went up, Landlords in Shanghat "had no intention of suddenly' raising rentals unfairly or—without long notice as possible, but they: did think it necessary to' point out to these particular tenants that rents were not irrevocably a dollar basis,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.