The price of flour usually considered by the poor as a good substitute for rice has reached a new high record in Shanghai. With its price fluctuating around $10.29 per bag, the opinion has been expressed by the Chinese press that it is priced higher even than rice itself. Hope is expressed also that the matter will receive the attention of the public so that its price may be reduced.
It is pointed out that there has been a scanty supply of flour during the past few days owing to difficulties in transportation. The fact that its price has been increased in the north has caused merchants in Shanghai to hoard wheat and flour being reluctant to sell. Local Chinese flour mills are trying to buy foreign flour but it is stated that negotiations are difficult to carry out it being asserted that the price of foreign flour is also highly fixed and that it is very difficult to book ships for transporting the flour to Shanghai. Australian and American flour is said to be priced at between $24 and $25, Fully supported by Settlement and Concession authorities, the Shanghai Rice Distribution Committee is busily preparing to distribute more than 20,000 bags of ground Saigon rice to the poor at a very cheap price. The date previously fixed for the distribution has now been changed to January 21 from Thursday of this week. hundred rice shops will distribute the rice. ce Commanders Exchange Courtesy Calls Rear-Admiral Shuichiro Higuchi, Commander of the Japanese Shanghai Area Naval Base, at 10.20 o'clock on Monday morning paid a return visit to Col. de Witt Peck, Commander of the Fourth U. S. Marines, at his headquarters on Sinza Road. Col. Peck called on Rear-Admiral Higuchi on Friday.
Major-Gen. Seize Sakurai, representing Lieut.-Gen. Susumu Fujita, Commander of Japanese Forees in the Shanghai area, and Major-Gen. Seiken Hasegawa, Commander of Japanese Defence Forces here, returned a visit of Col. Peck at 10 o'clock yesterday morning.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.