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- (a) To withdraw the orders for Japanese goods already ordered;
- (b) To stop shipment of Japanese goods already ordered but not yet consigned;
- (c) To refuse to accept Japanese goods already in the godowns but not yet paid for;
- (d) To register with the Anti-Japanese Association Japanese goods already purchased and to suspend temporarily the selling of these goods. The procedure of registration will be separately decided upon.
Subsequent resolutions adopted by the same Association are much more detailed and contain provisions for all possible cases and eventualities.
A powerful means of enforcing the boycott is the compulsory registration of Japanese goods held in stock by Chinese merchants. Inspectors of the anti-Japanese societies watch the movement of Japanese goods, examine those of doubtful origin in order to ascertain whether or not they are Japanese, undertake raids on stores and godowns where they suspect the presence of non-registered Japanese goods, and bring to the attention of their principals any case of the violation of the rules they may discover. Merchants who are found to be guilty of such a breach of the rules are fined by the Boycott Associations themselves, and publicly exposed to popular disapproval, while the goods in their possession are confiscated and sold at public auction, the proceeds going into the funds of the anti-Japanese organisation.
The boycott is not limited to trade alone. Chinese are warned not to travel on Japanese ships, to use Japanese banks or to serve Japanese in any capacity, either in business or in domestic service. Those who disregard these instructions are subjected to various forms of disapproval and intimidation.
Another feature of this boycott, as of previous ones, is the wish not only to injure Japanese industries, but to further Chinese industries by stimulating the production of certain articles which have hitherto been imported from Japan. The principal result has been an extension of the Chinese textile industry at the expense of Japanese-owned mills in the Shanghai area.
Fluctuations of the boycott movement in 1931–32.The boycott of 1931, organised on the lines just described, continued until about December of that year, when a certain relaxation became apparent. In January 1932, in the course of the negotiations then proceeding between the Mayor of Greater Shanghai and the Japanese Consul-General in that city, the Chinese even undertook to dissolve voluntarily the local anti-Japanese association.
During the hostilities in Shanghai, and the months immediately following the evacuation of the Japanese troops, the boycott, although never completely abandoned, was moderated, and during late spring and early summer it even looked as if Japanese trade in different parts of the country might resume. Then, quite suddenly, at the end of July and beginning of August, coinciding with the reported military activity on the borders of Jehol, there was a marked revival of the boycott movement. Articles urging the people not to buy Japanese goods appeared anew in the Chinese Press, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce published a letter suggesting a resumption of the boycott, and the Coal Merchants' Guild in the same city decided to restrict to the minimum the importation of Japanese coal. At the same time, more violent methods were employed, such as the throwing of a bomb into the compound of a coal dealer suspected of having handled Japanese coal, and the sending of letters to store-keepers threatening to destroy their property unless they stopped selling Japanese commodities.