An official of the Council's price investigation department stated that he had had several informal talks with a Japanese ofücial who acted as bason officer between the Council and the army authorities, Yesterday morning, he said, he spoke to the official again regarding the rice situation and was told that the matter would be taken up for consideration by the higher army authorities.
The official emphasized that the only solution to the rice problem was the supply of native rice to Shanghai adding that the Chinese population here could not place too much reliance on foreign imported rice owing to uncertainties of exchange, high foreign currency, high freights and other charges which were bound to affect prices.
The same official agreed that there has not been a decrease in prices of commodities to correspond with the recent improvement in the local Chinese dollar. It was pointed. out to him that the United States dollar, for instance, dropped to as much as twenty per cent during the past month. He admitted that from all reports in his possession there had mot been any instance of decreases in the price of commodities. H pointed. out, however, that there w: no price control in the Settlement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.