Tokyo, Apr. 20.
Altogether 54351 Tokyo citizens have been charged with violation of various provisions of the National Material Control Regulations enforced nine months ago, according to the Tokyo Police Board.
Violators against the Anti-Profiteer: ing Act alone totalled 20,500, and those evading the C. y Price Control Regulations There were mi offenders also in the metals, fuel cotton-tissues, leather, rubber and lumber industries. Most of the persons arrested were released with a warning. The police, disturbed to find that such cases tend to increase, intend to adopt a more drastic attitude towards future offenders.
Particularly annoying is the traffic in petrol-tickets issued to car-owners. The official price for petrol is 55 sen per American gallon, and taxis are rationed on a ticket-system for from 100 to 150 gallons monthly. Private owners are allowed only thirteen gallons monthly. Taxi-drivers find it more remunerative to sell their tickets to private owners at premiums ranging from Y.l20 to ¥.2 per gallon than to run their taxis; and the authorities are at present powerless to stop the trafic, as the Control negotiations failed to provide for such an eventuality.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.