Needless to say, there is overlap of Chinese and foreign interests and therefore of their problems. The foreigner is dependent on the Chinese not only for his trade but for his very existence. Therefore every difficulty placed in the path of the Chinese is apt to react automatically on the foreigner. The employees of foreigners, notwithstanding their identity cards, have been conscripted for daily labour, and the household is left to carry on without the services of its cook. In the movement of goods there is little to distinguish the restrictions on the foreigner from those on the Chinese.
The principal problem with which the foreign community is faced is necessarily the continued closure of the River and that is far more than a local problem. So long as it remains closed, the stifling of trade, at any rate western trade, with all that depends upon it, is automatic. It affects the livelihood, indeed the very liberty of every member of the community. Except as a rare and special privilege it is impossible to leave the port. To enter it is still more dim-cult. The continued separation of families may be more thoughtless than deliberate but it inflicts a very severe hardship, Another severe hardship is caused by the refusal to facilitate staff transfers, and that is perhaps worse in that it is definitely deliberate, Supplies of imported goods, commonly used in every household, are gradually being exhausted, and cannot be replenished. Prices are soaring, and when once the small stocks laid in by individuals and the one month's ration reserved by the Foreign Residents' Association have been exhausted serious problems likely to arise. An interred; durch difficulty might be experi-n obtaining supplies, was anticipated and provided for, but nobody expected that Hankow would rei a closed port indefinitely.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.