"Before I conclude, I like to take this opportunity to read to you part lof a letter which T have just received from an old respectable member of the community, who has recently retired in England and who still has Jextensive interests in Shanghai. The etter says:—
"I was very interested in reading] your statement of policy, and more: especially your views on returning. confidence in real estate. You are Quite right in stating that real estate: Is part of the economic and financial foundation of Shanghai, and I will go} further and say that the depression fin real estate in really the cause of the present economic crisis that we re suffering from in Shanghai. 1 have seen Shanghai in many depressions, and crises, but, until recently, land has always been the one stable asset, and however bad every-{thing else might have been, the value lot and and its stability was the source of strength to the community in, general, and a realizable asset.
"We are suffering principally from a boom that was engineered a few years ago, without any attention be-Ing paid to the return that could be obtained on inflated values, and Jeheap money assisted yhis boom, with the result that advances were made for speculative purposes in many ceases on land that could never show sul cient return to pay interest on the money lent. This, of course, was not the case everywhere, and there were very many mortgages made on sound lines, but the difficulties encountered in collecting interest on mortgages and the protracted delay when foreclosure had to be made, has done more to destroy confidence in the financing of property than any-_ thing else. I know for a fact that money is available, and there are mortgages to be had, on sound lines, but, until the question of the rights fof foreclosure are clearly stated and seitied, you will find that nobody is
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.