Indo-China Situation as Excuse for High Prices The tense situation in Indo-China, where a Japanese move is reported to be possible, is causing anxiety among the Chinese public in Shanghai. as rice speculators are beginning to increase their prices beyond the limit fixed by the Rice Price Fixing Committee on the pretext that the situation will stop the arrival of foreign rice. The Shanghai Rice Market in Foochow Road had to be closed earlier than usual on Thursday because of confusion in the market.
The Rice Price Fixing Committee has held an emergency meeting at which the committee-men decided to issue a warning to merchants selling their rice beyond the official price of $59.50 per picul of Saigon rice. It was stated at the meeting that although the cost had been increased. there was ample ready stock in Shanghai. The committee threatened to report the names of unscrupulous merchants to the authorities.
In a statement to the press, Mr. Vu Ya-ching, chairman of the Shanghai Foodstuffs Readjustment Committee, urges employers of big commercial firms and factories to buy rice for their employees. He says that although at present there are 700.000 bags of rice stored in Shanghai, many of them are for relief purposes. He explains that it may be difficult to buy foreign rice in future and that he is not sure how much of the new rice crop in the interior can be transported to Shanghai.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.