Pri es of More Important Commodities Doubled In Single Month; F.R.B, Banknotes Depreciate ITTLE else is talked of in Peiping but the cost of everything and what is going to happen to the local currency.
Prices continue to soar some articles, flour for instance, much igher than in Shanghai, in others, coal for one, not quite so high. But in north China the situation is probably a good deal more serious than in central China, because the economic situation there is further complicated by a very real and serious shortage of all the more important foodstuffs.
And as this shortage is due not to one single cause but to a number of quite different ones, which have no immediate connection with each other, it all the more difficult for the authorities to cope with the problem, The chief causes of the present food shortage here are: the floods last summer, an uncertain and steadily deteriorating cur~ rency, unstable financial conditions generally, a shortage of freight cars, and constant inter prion of communications with the interior owing to guerilla activities; and for the city of Peiping itself, the large increase in population due to the influx of Japanese and the refugees from the unsettled surrounding country.
Priges of the more Important commodities, such as flour, rice, the coarser kinds of grain, vegetables, meat find stigar have gone up 100 per sufielency of their daily needs, Which is the main thought and preoccupation of the average Chinese, ceeded 20 per cent. against the heaviest drop in the value of the FAH, note has up to now not exceeded 20 per inst the National currency). As a result there has arisen the us tial outery that the shortage is. being artificially created by speculation and profiteering. This. however, would appear to be a too the Japanese are unable (o assure to the conquered even this bare minimum, their hold on the country ig likely to become more precarious than ever.
Very Serious rrobiem It is a very serious problem. This break-down Inthe economic situa Molle explanation, "Obviously, the tion, rather than any political dealers In everyday necessaries. und military dimiculties, now seriously specially those of the more perishable kind, could not push up their prices threatens the success of the Japanese plans for the development of north so violently, unless they were in com= plete agreement.
Distrusting Local Currency:
But the Chinese petty trader Is altogether too individualistic to take part In any kind of combine, and the Simple truth 4s that they all happen to be of one mind in distrusting the weal currency, not knowing what going to happen to It from one day tothe next. And as owing to the general shortage and the overs population, they are able to com mand any' prices they like, they not unnaturally: try and sareeguaed them= selves as much as possible, ride dealers in foods of a more pormanent nature, prefer not to sell of all, Ie they can help it, or. at least, only to sell suiMieiont to" cover their" dally expenses.
"This altitude was clearly exempli fied at the New Year fair in the iulichang. Usually. so eroweded that tone can hardly move, it was pleasant= Ly-empty this year, and very little business was being done. The curio fair in the Temple of the God of Fire, tu the same street, well-known to foreigners here, was.
anything, even emptier. The stall-seemed 10 be strangely lid one missed the usual of "Look see! Look see!" There were very few purchasers. Nor was that surprising seeing the fantasy Hie prices that were being asked coal dollars; though, if one ment ed wold dollars, the prices asked were hots unreasonable, But of that currency the average Chinese andi Japanese hold tittle store, China. "And undoubtedly this breakdown has taken the Japanese authoriies completely by surprise, who, on the contrary, had always "reckoned on the prosperity, which the success ful_economic development was 0 Dung in its train, as one of the main factors in winning over the Chinese people to their side.
Nor is it only the Chinese who are suffering from' the present dimeult Jcanditions. Japanese nationals are becoming equally dissatisfied and alarmed, nnd are violently critical of their authorities. Lured from their Japan, where rife was becoming steadily more dimeult. by the stories of fabulous wealth to be sed in the el dorado of north China, thousands of Japanese of the poorer lasses—now said to amount to well over a quarter of a million—have swarmed over to the mainland, bring Ing the whole of their small savings with them.
But the bright prospects have proved illusory. These people, 100, have been very badly it by' the heavy rise In the cast of tiv the Japanese population able to obtain from ization, means of their oficial rati important modities, such as rice and flour. faltly reasonable prices Steadily Growl But labour, domestic service, rie shaws, ea, cigarettes, and all. the other minor luxuries of life have With their usual habit of looking for an explanation in every di Dut the right one, the local press has been discussing airily two measures that must be taken, in order to remedy the unfortu situation. The one is: ppartunity of the establistiment the Wang Ching-wei Govern troduce a fresh currency in North China: and the other Is to seize and concessions, gone up. just ay mich for the Jay ese immigrants, ax for the original Chinese inhabitants. And their dis content his. therefure, bee rowing, another for the provided a very euse for their own presence there.
A successful and con wes re VERY to these measures we able our rency that ence of the It is interesting to note how in recent weeks, as the economic financial situation in north Chi has ea, the talk and deteriorate, us it been doing, it looks very sven this last remaining asset glance-sheet of the China Tneident would be likely to tern into a very troublesome: Habilit assumed thought to be as well to soft-pedal for the time being, lest the promises of great prosperity' that have always hitherto been trumpeted abroad in connection with that programme, should stand out in tov violent cor trast to the' stark facts of the sent deplorable conditions, Moreover, as the cost of steadily rises and the difleulty of ling even the daily rice-bow! grows ever greater, the discontent amor the Chinese masses has been stead growing, At bollom, the Japanese have only been tolerable to the Chinese us masters, ai the sole condition Huge Fish Market For Canton Being Built
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.