IHOUSANDS of eyes in Shanghai, including, no doubt, those of the people for whom the warning was intended—speculators, hoarders and profiteers—yesterday rested upon the proclamation issued under the seals of the French and Shanghai Municipal Councils on Sunday in connection with the rice crisis in the city. Printed in Chinese and English and posted up in prominent places throughout the two foreign areas, copies of the proclamation were eagerly scanned by large crowds throughout the day.
That the majority of the Chinese population welcomed the action of the two authorities was apparent everywhere but there was little change in the prices asked for this essential commodity, a drop of about 60 cents a picul from $45 to $4440 being registered for first-grade rice.
Illustrative of the seriousness of the situation was the outbreak of two more strikes in the city; one at the China Soap Company's factory in Yangtzsepoo and the other at Sincere's store.
On Sunday, it will be recalled, employees of the Sun Ca., staged a go-slow strike which was called off pending negotiations between the staff and the management.
Although there were many sighs of relief when news of the Councils' action was spread far and wide, most of the Chinese population expressed discontent in no uncertain terms with the extremely high prices which still prevailed, proclamation or no proclamation. Hope was expressed that the two authorities, by whom the welcome action had been taken, would immediately start enquiries to ascertain whether or not the rice merchants were making more than the 20 per cent profit allowed by Chinese law.
Interviewed by a "North-China Daily News" reporter yesterday an official of the S. M. C. stated that there had been no developments following the publication of the proclamation.. No profiteers had been reported to the Council under the terms of the proclamation and, consequently, there had been no action taken against dealers, such as expulsion from the two foreign areas and the confiscation of stocks of rice, with both of which penalties unscrupulous dealers had been threatened.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.