JAPANESE CONTROL OF SHANGHAI

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 264, 6 August 1942, Page 6

JAPANESE CONTROL OF SHANGHAI

Conditions Today HOW ENEMY RESIDENTS FARE Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, August 5. Information on the general conditions in Shanghai has been received in Auckland from a reliable source. While the position of British and American residents is undoubtedly bad, it could be much worse, states the writer. When the Japanese seized the International Settlement they commandeered all non-Chinese food and for some time things were chaotic. While the import and export trade has ceased and all trade is paralysed, affairs have now settled down to some extent. The public utility companies supplying power, gas and water and operating the tramways and buses are carrying on with their own staffs under strict Japanese supervision and control. The police, health and public works departments are also functioning under Japanese control. A large proportion of the Chinese inhabitants, who-number 1,500,000, are destitute. Armed robbers are abroad dud the. kidnapping and shooting of Japanese and of Chinese with Japanese sympathies are of frequent occurrence. Smallpox and cholera are always epidemic in the summer season and bubonic plague occasionally, a condition that demands the services of an efficient health department. Some years ago the authorities, realizing the importance of the Japanese in the’ settlement, appointed a Japanese as deputy-commissioner of police and a large proportion of the rank and file of the police force was Japanese before the occupation. A Japanese was assistant-secretary to the council of the Settlement and a number of the health inspectors were'Japanese. With regard to food, Shanghai formerly imported large quantities of frozen meat, butter, flour, canned fruit, and other commodities from Australia an'd California. Fairly good beef and mutton can be obtained from North China, however, and there is an ample supply of vegetables, the dairies are still producing, and the local flour mills manufacture a flour which is fairly good, though not of the quality of the imported. The affairs of the British and American people are in the hands of the Swiss Consulate. They are allowed to live in their own homes and carry on their business or what is left of it, subject to Japanese approval. They must report daily to the -Japanese police. They are permitted to draw 550 dollars a month from the bank for living expenses. Prices are high, the average increase being 500 per cent. In former 'days when the Shanghai dollar, now worth 3jd., stood at one shilling and eightpence, the cost of running a house was 600 to 700 dollars. Thus they are receiving less than onetenth of normal requirements. These'conditions apply only to those who follow strictly the regulations laid down by the Japanese, who are cruel and revengeful taskmasters. They hate the British, and any British or American residents who break the rules are thrown into prison, where they exist under filthy conditions and receive harsh and degrading treatment. “The chief aversion of the Japanese,” says the writer, “appears to be journalists.” About £120,000,000 of British capital has been invested in the settlement. Shanghai investments in Malaya rubber plantations amounted to £6,000,000.