Ending the Badlands One of the frst fruits of the modus vivend! signed between the Shanghai Municipal Council fand the Shanghai Special Munteipality on Pri-ay, concerning the policing rights of the western outside roads areas, was the announce iment of an order issued to some 30 small and large gambling houses in thet district in com= pliance with which, they will have to close up shop by the end of this month. According to the same source, the owners of these dens have applied for a six-months' extension of the clos jing time on the grounds that 1,500 employees would be thrown out of work. From reliable Information available, it is apparent that this appeal will be ignored and rightly so. It must not be forgotten that these 1,500 employees had other professions prior to the opening of these gambling establishments some 18 months ago jand that in any ease they must have earned Jenough during this period to be able to last Jout until another occupation, less Jucrative perhaps but more honourable, will turn up. It Is reasonable to assume that the abolition of these establishments. will also bring about a marked decrease in the number of armed thugs who have found in them havens of revue. 11 is only to be hoped that the modus vivendi will bring, Jabout further reformation in a district [which for the past year and a half crime war trump, and law and order something, that was unknown, Whisky Problems sleuth from one of the focal wine and spirit dealers recently performed an excellent pice of detective work in a spiritous manner fauerac der well-known proprietary names Jand unearthed large stores of whisky mas
which had been no closer to the. banks and braes of Scotland than Houskew. One thing he luiseovered was that there was no lack of properly labelled bottles owing to the iniquitous business of trading in labelled bottles for re-Ailing purposes. In Japan, where a serious effort has been made for years to produce a decent brand of whisky on the Scotch style, a serious Jdificulty has been experienced, Like all products, War exigencies have affected Japanere whisky distillation with results which may pro: roundly affect quality. According to the "Osak Mainichi," there "are two places where Scotch whisky is made. One is, of course, Scotland. The other is a little town with the non-Gaelic mame of Yamazaki, situated in the highlands that tie between Osaka and Kyoto." Originally, barley used to be imported {rom Scotland but now it is grown In the Yamazaki vicinity, and although the liquor is distilled far from the fland of the heather and thistle, it has a sound [Scotch ancestry and is claimed to possess sound Scottish flavour. Aged in the cask for 12 years is the claim attached to the best bri lout Japanese self-sufficiency has resulted in the fact that only the casks are now imported. The fwar is altering this method. Charred sherry fearrels were brought in from abroad, which, after containing whisky for a decade or so have be recharred and. put back in the sherry rade, if the gastronomic editor of this journal fis to be believed. Imports are now under the Tigid control of the Japanese Government and. sherry casks may no longer be imported. With {the stole determination of a race not to be defeated by government restrictions, experiments fare being conducted to find a type of barrel fich will meet the necessary conditions for-finerly provided by imported sherry barrels, but there is a. plaintive hint inthe article that whatever may be the scientific standard of th [distillation process, the seal set on the perfee-Yon of the product and its competition with brands produced among the heather of Scotland, a largely dependent on those time-worn barre} now unobtainable.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.