The announcement of the intention of the Shanghai Municipal Council to import rice from Hongkong for the purpose of sale at reasonable rates has already had its effect upon the rice market during the last few days, There has already been a substantial drop in price, and the opinion is expressed that even lower levels will be reached. It is to be hoped that this is the case, for there is plenty of evidence available to show that in the past there has been gross profiteering, and that the staple food of the Chinese has been manipulated in a thoroughly unscrupulous manner. Huge quantities of Tice amounting, according to some, to as much as 1,600,000 bags have been held in storage awaiting even higher prices, and the Council's decision has had the effect of stopping the upward trend and bringing about a movement in the opposite direction. That the price of rice has recently had no real relation to the state of the outside market is revealed in the last issue of the "Hongkong Weekly Press" to hand, which records growing agitation there over the increasing cost of the cereal.
As on April 18 the wholesale selling price of Saigon Rice, containing 25 per cent. broken grain was HK$1432 as compared with a landed cost of HK$8.67 per picul and the question was asked whether a profit of HKS5.65 per picul was not a disgrace, the answer apparently being in the affirmative. Thus the wholesale selling price in Hongkon,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.