Thousands and thousands of dolters are daily flowing into the pockets of profiteers who are taking full advantage of {he unsettled political condi tions ad who do their utmost spread rumours of war to a gullible population.
"Remember 1992?" they say through countless agents, "Well, it is just about to start again, To-morrow you may hear the sparier of machineguns and the boom of cannon, Tt would be the safest to move tonight. Now, we know of a nice place in such-and-such street.
It is a well-organized racket, in which transportation and house~ rental agencies work together. Hav= ing spread the rumours through Scores of "mosquito papers" and thousands of pald scare-mongers, 1ncluding, transportation workers, they Yeap immediate profits and ' little can be done fo bring them to justice a it is well-nigh Impossible to trace the false reports, Exodus Still Heavy The, exodus from Chapel, the North Szechuen Road area, Hongkew and West Hongkew, and the Kashing Fond district continued on Aug. 6 on a large scale, being especially heavy the afternoon, It.was due, as on previous days, largely to the work of the profiteers, and) the Chinese and Seltlement' police could do little to discourage it, A contributing factor, as far as the Kiangwan area was concerned, was "machine~ un firing heard the previous evening. in the vicinity of the Seekingjao Gott Course, This ring, which was practice shooting by the local Paoantui, was audible for over an hour during the early evening. It was heavy for the most part and attracted considerable attention, Previous operations of the Pacantui north of Shanghai, such as 4 trenches and rifle pits, building machine-gun emplacements and depositing sand-bogs, had been performed quietly, mostly after dark, and hence had given rise to tile speculation as to their purpose. 'The presence of members of the Paoantul In the vicinity, itself, has mot been obvious as the men have "appeared largely in civilian clothes, Trrespective of guarded activity, the exodus has been, and still" tremendous owing to' the machine tions of the rumour-mongers. The demand for transportation has been 0 great that rates huve skyrocketed, jing proportions.on Aug. 5, when throughout the day. All kinds several times the usual amount being charged in many eases. Some of the smaller removal companies now have their lorries on the streets day and night. The effect of the presence of a van in a side-street or a lane is to create a feeling of insecurity among the neighbours, and the agents of the profiteers soon take advantage of this fact by inducing others to move, The house-renters work through the transportation men and It Is Interesting to note that the refugees, in nine cases out of ten, know exactly where they are going'
the Settlement or the French Concession,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.