After buying the cocoons from the interior Shanghai merchants have now suddenly been prevented from transporting them to Shanghai. Whether or not they will be allowed to have their only raw material for this year's production of silk is therefore entirely dependent on the outcome of ptegotiations.
Owing to the big demand for silk, the silk filatures in Shanghai have tried to seize every chance of storing as many cocoons as possible. They are not only buying cocoons from occupied districts such as Kashing, Pinghu, Soochow and Wusih but also from farmers living in districts of the two silk-producing provinces which are still under the control of the Kuomintang troops and officials. The Chekiang Provintial Government has taken a favourable view of the petition of Shanghai merchants but further negotiations are necessary with the Foreign Trade Committee.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.