Presented in this way, the Customs figures would suggest a' great expanston of commercial activity and substantially larger resources for the Government of the country, Actually, "the reverse is the case, The Increase In dollars is due solely to, the depreciation of the currency. Last year there was a decline of 5 per, cent, In sterling value as com-red with 1039 and a decline of no {ess than 69, per cent, compared with 1036.
Moreover, in recent years, Customs revenue has not meant Government revenue, Today the Customs in China represent little more than. a collects ing organization, acting as a neutral fon behalf of two opposing parti The work foes on, more or less before a far as the average trader 15 concerned, and the. figures quoted ive an account of ihe stewardship. But the money from the occupied tareas Is taken automatically into Japanese custody, and remains there, and only the amounts derived trot trade in Free China are pald to th credit of the Government's account, What the proportions are it is impossible to say, but as Japan has con-{tol of all the coastal ports it is probable that she now receives at least 80 per cent, of the revenue which posses through the hands of the Customs Service.
From the point.ot view of the fo clan bondholders whose secured on the Customs, the area mont is entirely unsatisfactory, opan,)although taking the revenue, does hot recognize her responsibility or paying Interest on the loans while the war Is in progress, Naturally, is hoped and believed that a setitement will be made when peace Is declared, but, in the meantime, the obligations to the bondholders' are mounting and the revenue, through currency depreciation, is "becoming perilously small.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.