The local reaction to the revised customs tariff seems naturally to have been. one of caution and the general disposition appears to be to watch it in practice before making any great amount of comment upon it and the results of its operation. Apart from the political side, however, there was a general feeling that as far as foreign business went in the present almost dead market, the new tariff made little difference, although it was agreed that in certain cases Japanese importers might profit by the new rates. It is a little unfortunate that the figures dealing with the value of the principal articles imported into Tientsin, Chinwangtao, Lungkow, Chefoo and Weihaiwei during the first quarter of 1938 were not available simultaneously with the publication of the avai able details of the revised tariff. It} has to be admitted at once that these figures are not corhplete. They do not, for example, wer the import of principal articles into Shanghai, which during the quartes in question was completely under Japanese domin tion. It is assumed that Hankow püblishes those figures upon information derived from the various Chinese Customs stations which bad handled the goods to which the! figures relate. But that does not necessarily mean that they cover all the imports mth those portions of China under Japanese domination north of the Yangtze, or that amount of business which it is believed has entered that portion of the country without having passed through.the ordinary formalities which would bring their appropriate figures upon the books of the Chinese Maritime Customs. It is safe, therefore, to assume that the figures in question are not entirely accurate, though they may serve as giving a fairly comprehensive cross-section of the trade of the portion of China to which the Hankow report published yesterday referred.
The first impression to be gained by a perusal of these figures concerns the remarkably small total representing the value of the principal atticals of import. These articles are enumerated as follows:
Total Cotton pg. (grey) $ 11,003 White or dyed p.g. 337,380 Printed cotton p.g. 29,186) Mise. cotton p.g. 4,464 Wool manufactures 204,765, Art, silk floss & y 39,483 Sugar 219.999. Kerosene.165,278 Cigarette paper 156,350
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.