To the Editor of the "Nosmi-Curxa Dany News"
Sm—Your correspondent Free has [brought up many common sense points in discussion of land and mortgage reform, but one important point in. my mind has not been put forward at all by the societies or. at the. informal parties at which Mr. J. (Choy was the henoured_ guest;" the point is this—when land held under consular title deed reverts to Chinese ownership in title as well as fu benefit, this land is then covered by Tuedi-jen and as far as T can see the owners of this land are in the same position as the Fangtan holders, that fi, they are exempted from S. Int.
land taxes which are 7 per mille of the assessed value, quite a handy sum of money if the land is in the Central District. 'There are' several els Jo the Setilement which were once held under consular registration, Dut the deeds have been cancelled and are now covered by Tu-di-jen; up fo the present the cases are isolated Jond when the owners have been pressed to pay the taxes, they have Jdone so, but there will be a crisis when the S. Mf. C, which after all Is fan association "of" land-renters, not land owners, mark you, Is faced with the position when ihe renters are in the minority with Tu-di-jen holders {in the majority. If this majority have the support of the Chinese Government and default in their tax payments to the S. M. C. or pay the taxes to the Greater Shanghai treasury, the Council can obtain no redress. from the Courts which are supported by the Government. The bankruptey and the collapse of the SMC, will 'Ing. J. K. Choy's solution in our real certainty. Before accepting estate problems, we.land-renters_ our object is to preserve: the Settle Jment, should view with suspicion all sorts' of reforms which might upset the present system of consular registration.
Rexren, [Shanghai, Dec. 19,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.