Japanese Imports to Cotton Crop Hongkong Increase Fron Our Own Consenronomer Hongkong, Sept. 18, Taking advantage of the European. war, Japanese merchants here are ordering large quantities of goods from their homeland for. sale in Hongkong, other British possessions in the Far East and the interior of China. Japanese goods will be in great demand owing to the gradual exhaustion of German goods and the British naval blockade of Germany. British goods are becoming more and more expensive owing to the decrease of production in England and the high freight and insurance rates for their transportation from the United Kingdom. "In four weeks, Japanese goods will completely replace those from' Germany, being much cheaper. Consumers will have no chaise, and even Chinese will' have to" buy Japanese goods.
American goods have little opportunity to compete with the Japanese owing to the high value of the U.S, dollar, in exchange for the yen and the Chinese dollar. Certain neces saries will be imported from the United States, but the war in Europe does not help American exporters in the Far Eastern markets as seen in trade reports he 'Japan is further benefitted by her moreaatile "marine, which ranks second only to that of Great Britain. Every Japanese ship coming to Hongkong' is heavily laden with commodities for this port, Manila, Singapore. and Penang. ' Accurate figures, however, are not yet avail able at this early date, but Japanese merchants are exceedingly optimistic. What Japan wants now is to liquidate the war in China, so that the muni-tiang works can again turn out more goods for the world markets. How to reach a lasting peace with China is still-a problem. Many plans have been formed, but so far none has turned out to be practicable. In any event, the European war is a boon to Japanese shipping and foreign trade, Telegraph Office at
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.