Jan, 20.
The correspondence which has recently been appearing in these columns concerning the various issues of small money vouchers by local concerns provides an opportunity of referring to the present small money shortage, which is causing very considerable anxiety, and for which a remedy should be found at the earliest possible moment, only is a considerable degree of incon venience caused, but the situation is likely to become grave on aceéunt of the hardships inflicted upon the poorer classes whose daily expenditure is to be stated in terms of cents, and not of dollars, It requires no great imagination to fancy the plight of the lekshaw -coolle, for instance, "whose takings rarely exceed one dollar, and who out of that sum very often has to feed himself and his family. On the other hand, there is a comparatively enormous loss of Dbusiness to the small trader through the reduced purchasing ability of his customers. It is common knowledge that hundreds of thousands of Chinese residing in Shanghai fare paid such wages that a dol represents anything from five per cent.
ten por cent, of their total monthly family income. Tu many cases it represents an even greater percentage, Not to be lable to purchase anything for less than one dollar, without having returned to them as change pieces of paper, which may be used part-payment for a' seat ina cinema of a drink at one of the Imding foreign hotels, a very definite hardship for people whose sale of living embraces neither the cinema not the hotel. It is true that these vouchers fare gaining something in the nature of the status of currency for lack of anything better. They can be passed on from one person to another, more often than not at a discount, which most of the Chinese sufferers cannot afford, 'They are thus again being milked of a proportion of their meagre incomes, not by those who have issued the coupons for their clients' convenience, but by those who make a commerce in the trafic of them.
Many explanations have been put forward to how and why the present situation arisen, and a number of theories as to where the small money has disappeared to, Which of them is correct need not be gone into here. The only important fact is that small money is not procurable save at a wholly iniquitous premium, clearly demonstrating the fact that much, if not all of the small currency is being Hoarded for the wresting of further profit from the poorer sections of the community. Tt follows that it a practically unlimited supply of small money became available, the currency, which at present held up in various exchange shops, and elsewhere, would very soon be fumed loose on the market, and the ramp, which is most certainly in existence, would speedily be brought to an end with little or no profit to the manipulators. It would be possible for any or all the foreign banks to {ake upon themselves the burden of easing the situation for the benefit of the public of Shanghai, but there is no reason why they should. Tt has been suggested that the or-Sanization which could, and should take over
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.