From the mystery and confusion surrounding the-F.R.B. currency, one thing, however, does emerge quite clearly, and that is that the attempts of the Japanese to establish a stable and independent currency in North China have so far been a complete failure. The F.R.B. currency has no standing of its own, but would appear to depend: solely on the military success of the Japanese in the China adventure, It-is, in fact, really little more than a war levy, which may or may not be paid off in the long run by whatever Chinese government is to control. North. China in the future. To regard itas a serious partner in the Yen bloc, which was the original idea behind the. setting-up of the Federal Reserve Bank, would be, to say the least, very premature. At present, anyhow, it remains an unknown quantity, and that is undoubtedly how the public in North China, both Chinese and Japanese, regard it.
A curious situation now exists in regard to the postage on letters from North China to foreign countries. When, owing to the fall in the dollar, the Chungking Government doubled the postage rates abroad, i.e. on ordinary letters to 50 cents, the Provisional Government of North China not only did not follow suit, but actually forbade the Post Office here to issue any similar notification. This was done, either in order to show their complete independence of the Chungking Government, or under the optimistic delusion that the local dollar note, of the F.R.B., had an external value of 1s. 2d.
The result has been that many correspondents to England and America have been getting complaints from the recipients of their letters, that they are being made to pay a surcharge for insufficient postage. Strangely enough, this does not appear to be by any means general, and many letters still appear to get through with only 25 cents stamps. The. position is all the more anomaly ous, as, in reply to enquiries, one is informed unofficially in North China, one should put on the extra 25 cents, if one wants to be on the safe side. It would be interesting to know, how this point is being dealt with by the International Postal Union, as presumably the Chinese government is still the only recognized postal authority with foreign countries.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.