In the course of another day marked by mob raids on dozens of rice Shops, the Settlement Police yesterday arrested a number of Chinese racketeers who have been instigating many of the disturbances and also took into custody scores of loafers who were active in the raids and some of whom suffered broken pates as a result of baton charges. Most rice shops in the Settlement and the French Concession closed their doors at 5 pin. The price of the grain declined only $1 per picul yesterday, and the cheap supplies promised by ihe Japanese army last Tuesday did not materialize, There were no reports of rice riots in the Eastern district, Eight calls to rice shops were answered by police at the Bubbling Well Station, who broke up the disturbances and recovered some of the stolen grain. They arrested nine troublemakers, but more important was the rounding-up of racketeers in the district who hid been mulcting Shop owners under threat of causing the establishments to be wrecked. Here, as elsewhere, an organized racket was indicated. In some instances the owners paid ruther than risk a visit by the mob.
The biggest raid on rice in the Bubbling Well district occurred at 32 Annam Rond. where seventy piculs of rice and thirty bags of flour were stolen. The police recovered only a small tart of the loot but arrested five of the looters, Thirty piculs were stolen at 283 Hart Road, where four men were arrested.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.