Recently rice merchants increased their prices on the pretext that the tense situation in Indo-China rendered it difficult to transport rice to this city but the resumption of shipping between Shanghai and Haiphong did nothing to improve the local situation. The committee has been trying its best to fix prices at reasonable level but merchants pre-for to trade outside the market, speculating instead of following the official quotations.
The committee frankly admits that the situation is beyond its control and official reaction is keenly awaited by all Chinese here. At a meeting held on Friday, members of the committee even decided to petition the authorities to prevail upon Mr. Vu Ya-ching to sell the 100,000 bags of Saigon rice which he bought feu relieving the people in Ningpo and Shaoshing so that more ready stocks may be available locally. It was also decided to request public bodies here io buy as much Saigon rice as they can afford. Indications are the price will continue to follow an upward trend if no remedy can be found.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.