Although they were not much in evidence in the market, the newly-printed second issue of $500,000 one-cent and five-cent notes was distributed by the Shanghai Branch of the Central Bank of China yesterday to other banks and big firms only. It was learned that they had adopted a policy of gradual distribution and refrained front giving the new notes to small exchange shop managers or merchants so as to prevent hoarding which is one of the reasons of shortage suffered by the public after the circulation of the first issue of the same amount of cent notes, Chinese banks, both foreign style and native, were given the new notes the value of which ranged from $100 to $500. Big firms and department stores were each given several hundred dollars worth of the notes.
Other commercial houses have registered for obtaining the notes but the bank officials will have to study their demands carefully before actual distribution, The Chinese evening press struck an optimistic note, stating that the problem of small money shortage would be settled with the circulation of the new cent notes. It was also learned that some foreign banks here were shipping $1 notes to Shanghai but the shortage of the 10- cent and 20-cent notes is still causing many difficulties. The general public has lost a great deal as their Chinese dollars are no longer worth their face value because of the shortage.
A reliable Chinese source that since most of the in the occupied interior peared, and since many cent notes must have been sent to the interior because of business transactions between Shanghai merchants and farmers, it was quite natural that there should be a shortage. It was expected that the 10-cent and 20-cent notes would be back here when farmers do their shopping during the Lunar New Year period.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.