House property, altogether, is not much of a catch these days in Peiping. If you are a Chinese and own a large and attractive compound with the buildings in a good state of repair, it is likely to be taken away from you on the plea (scarcely the right word) of military requirements. The tenants, Chinese or foreign, are simply - ordered to get out; even allied nationals, such as Germans and Italians, are not exempt from such evictions.
As regards the thousands of smaller houses rented by Japanese, the Chinese landlord is lucky, if after the first iwo or three months, he gets any rent at all, and then it is generally not the rent originally agreed on. Whether any landlord will be bold enough to appeal under the new regulations. will be interesting to watch. There are also various schemes on the tapis of city improvement, by laying large thoroughfares through certain parts and the erection of several large administration buildings.
For this purpose whole blocks will have to be pulled down. And several property owners: have been warned that their houses will be wanted for this purpose, for which they will yeecive quite a nominal sum. City improvement schemes on these lines would seem to be fairly easy, and right be recommended to the Shanghai Municipal Coyneil when planning to widen Nanking and other streets in the Central District, London Letter
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.