The railways have, needless to say, been all taken over by the Japanese and railway staffs from Manchoukuo have been brought in to work them. But as most of the lines are fully engaged in supplying the armies at the front with stores, munitions and men, the restoration of the rail services has so far been of little benefit to the ordinary trader. The only beneficial result that the war has brought to North China hitherto has been a notable reduction of many of the exorbitant local taxes; though as trade is not moving, this can be of little benefit except to the individual.
In spite of the great falling-off of trade and business in Peiping, the cost of living for the common people has not gone up as badly as the predictions of experts and the scare-lines of the newspapers had led one to expect. The reason for this is probably, that despite all the external trappings of foreign trade, the common people of China, when hard put to it, are not so very dependent on foreign imports after all. They can get along, if necessary, on their own immediate produce, and it happens that the harvest in the environs of the city has been very good this year.
The countryside, however, is anything but peaceful and conditions there are very much less secure than in the city these days. The country. specially to the northwest adjoining the hills, is infested with bands of irregulars: "patriotic volunteers" as they call themselves, tufei as the Japanese and villagers call them. It is true that they do occasionally waylay isolated Japanese patrols or single motor lorries, but their chief activities are confined to looting and plundering the neighbouring villages in the plain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.