Exorbitant fares are being imposed on goods and passengers between Shanghai to the interior areas under Japanese occupation along the Soochow Creek, reports the Chinese press.
A number of shipping firms have started services along this creek, the destinations being Quinsan, Pachang, etc, via Chiwanmiao, Huangtu, Shihpu, Tsingpu, ete. These firms are doing a roaring business while ticket prices are slightly higher than before the hostilities. Goods sent from Shanghai to the interior consist mostly of cigarettes, sugar, and manufactured goods, while those brought to Shanghai include fresh fish, vegetables, rice, and other produce, The peace maintenance bodies of various places through which the vessels must pass, however, impose exorbitant taxes on both goods and passengers.
For instance, taxes of $3 on each picul of vegetables, $4 on a goat, $5 on a calf and $9 on a cow, are being collected, while each passenger is required to pay twenty cents both on entering and leaving the territory.
Three junks laden with rice from Tsingpu on their way to Shanghai, for which tax was already paid on leaving the territory of Tsingpu, were again required to pay a new tax when the junks reached the Toyoda Cotton Mill, in the western district of Shanghai, by agents of the Great Way City Government, who demanded $3 in tax for each 100 catties of the cereal. As the tax was not paid, the rice junks were detained there, the Chinese papers report.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.