Currency Warriors

Baffling to Chinese coolies are the ramifications of the Chinese-Japanese currency war. Although Japanese Armies have driven beyond many of their homes, they still do business in Chinese dollars. Moreover the Chinese dollar, convertible into foreign exchange as the yen is not, has the support of British financiers, remains the dominant money of China. For 14 months the Japanese have tried to supplant it with Federal Reserve notes in North China, military notes in Central and South China, and have recently announced a new bank of issue, the China Commercial Promotion Bank, whose notes are to circulate in the financial citadel of Shanghai itself.

Last week in Canton took place a currency operation that coolies understood and relished. Creeping past Japanese sentries on a quiet Sunday, 100 guerrillas raided the Japanese-owned Bank of Taiwan, bayoneted three guards, smashed open the safes, grabbed $260,000 in notes, $90,000 in silver coins, escaped with a 20-minute lead. Baffled Japanese clamped martial law on the city that night, lifted it again before daybreak.

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