July 16, 1904.]
material as bombarded the Japanese Em- bassy in London with offers to serve under the sun-rayed Bag, is not ripe for such a drastic and uncomplimentary change as legislated compulsion implies. Let the Volunteer Force be treated now as it would | be if the morrow promised work for it, and there will soon be an end to the crop of such fantastic schemes as REUTER outlines for us this morning.
CHINESE PARTNERSHIPS AND COMPULSORY REGISTRATION.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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compensate them for any indirect dis- advantages that might follow upon registra- tion. Moreover, as the legislation would be directed against semi-fraudulent partner. ships, foreign objectors would be scarcely complimentary to themselves.
IN LIGHTER VEIN.
in Europe. A hong or chop is inaugurated for some specific commercial venture, or to carry out some industrial work, or manage an estate, or own a ship. "A number of names are got together, some of men of standing, some of men of straw; the com- bined capital may be much or little, the fact The Po Fung Bank case is the most con- being that the good men's names are the venient instance to quote as being freshest draw, and these men may (or may not) be- in. the public memory. But innumerable lieve in the bona fides of the speculation. On cases could be cited. On the same day is the strength of these good names the chop that on which judgment was delivered in commences business, gets credit among the the Po Fung Bank case, there was before Chinese as well as the European firms, and the Court another, that of the Tung Chan goes on gaily for a time living on credit, firm, whose statement of affairs showed The really good men find out that the busi- liabilities of $840,000 and assets of only (Daily Press, 12th July.)
ness is not a paying one and withdraw, $500,000; yet when the public examinatión The compulsory registration of Chinese giving as little publicity to the withdrawal was entered upon none of the partners were partnerships in Hongkong has long been as the manager of the firm can persuade forthcoming, and there only appeared the recognised as a vital necessity, both for the them to adopt. When difficulties arise the manager, who disclaimed all knowledge of protection of commercial interests and for proprietors and other parties concerned are any living partners and declared that the the simplification of the work of the Law not to be found, and often the only person only one he knew of had lately died in Courts. Hitherto the demand for such a in the firm who can be got at is he who Canton. Nothing more could be got out of departure has always been met with the describes himself as a paid servant or him, but as there was an offer from an out- rejoinder that the schenie was impracticable manager. The procedure is quite common | sider to take over the business and make a and impossible, that it would constitute an here as in Hongkong and is as generally composition of 66 percent., there was nothing interference with the source of the Colony's condemned as it deserves to be."
else for the Court to do but declare the wealth, namely, the Chinese trader; but at Sir WILLIAM GOODMAN at the first hear-examination closed, length we have arrived at a stage at which, ing of the case stated that he and his brother it would appear, the authorities are begin-Judges had been for a long time in favour ning to realise the falsity of their past policy and to adopt means, tentative though they be in the meantime, whereby they may devise some method of dealing with this very important matter, and of brushing away what is admitted on all sides to be à crying evil. It is good to hear, too, that Hongkong and Singapore are entering upon the movement together. Owing to the geographical situation of Hongkong, she suffers more from the evil than does her southern neighbour. But their general interests are identical. It is more difficult for an absconding debtor to get away from Singapore unbeknown. From Hongkong he can abscond to China by a thirty-cent passage on a Canton steamer and laugh defiance at the British law from the other side of the Border. The most common instances of the evils attendant upon the lack of compulsory registration appear in the Bankruptcy Court. Again and again cases come up before the Judge in which firms ask to be adjudicated bankrupt, and when it comes to an examination into the state of the firms' affairs the partners are found to have absconded or else they leave men of straw to bear the brunt of the pro- ceedings and get out of the difficulty in the best way they can, with the result that the creditors are kept out of their legal rights in a manner that cannot be described other wise than as fraudulent.
blaspheming at the beam That makes him visible, suns him in it gleam, And gives him life a moment to blaspheme." Is it that a surfeit of liberty has fermented within the national soul as the surfeit of
of compulsory registration of partnerships- and he added that he thought this was a
(Daily Press, 13th July.) The time-hallowed privilege of the matter which should have the attention of the Government; one-quarter of the work Englishman is to grumble; and of the many of the Court was taken up directly or in-privileges that are undoubtedly his birth- directly in deciding questions as to whether right, he clings with unshaken affection to With a constitutional liberty for certain persons were or were not partners. this. In the course of his judgment also His Lord which he has the envy of countless observers ship stated it as his belief that “ auong the of other and less favoured nations, he exer- Chinese of means there were inany who cises it in railing very often at that which wished to limit their liability in partnership is the source of it, almost like the midge businesses to the amount of their shares in described by GERALD Massey such businesses. They disliked being liable for unknown amounts resulting from the contracts which the managing partner might enter into on behalf of the hong, and as, under British law, all partners were liable for the debts of the firin, when they wished to evade this obligation they took care that their names should not openly appear as partners, even in cases where their friends knew that they were really partners having shares in the business, and on that ground were more ready to give credit to the firm. In case the firm should become insolvent. such persons probably honestly believed that they had discharged all the obligations imposed by integrity and commercial morality if the share they had contributed went towards meeting the liabilities of the firm. They felt practically secure against further liability because of the great difficulty of proving them legally to be partners. Such was the view he entertained from the experience he had gained in this Colony from the numerous cases of disputed partnership which had come before himself and other judges in the Courts of Law."
The case which has brought the registra tion agitation to a head is that of the Po Fung Bank, which suspended payment in March of this year and went into bank- ruptcy with a deficit of $120,000. When the time came for judicial examination into the Bank's estate the only persons who The English law of partnership and the admitted partnership were the two managing Chinese view of the subject are absolutely partners, neither of whom was in a position irreconcilable. Nothing can meet the needs to meet the Bank's large liabilities or to do of the case but compulsory registration. It anything towards it. The Official Receiver may be that here, as in Singapore, an found in the course of his enquiries that objection may be raised on the part of the there were several other undeclared part- European firms through the Chamber of ners, and in the result an issue was ordered Commerce by reason of the fact that re- to be tried as to whether at least three of gistration would apply to them equally with these were not partners. After a four-days' the Chinese firms, and would necessitate trial the Chief Justice, Sir WILLIAM GOOD- disclosure of the composition of all partner MAN, in an eminently sound judgment found ships; but there is at least one past repre- that these three men had been proved to sentative of the Hongkong Chamber of have been partners, and his Lordship accord-Commerce who has in effect voiced a favour ingly found against them on the issue.
The Singapore Free Press commenting on this same case in its earlier stages explained how the Chinese commercial system of part- ners extends much further than is customary
able view of the project in the Legislative Council, and it must also be remembered that in the bulk of such bankruptcy cases European firms figure among the creditors, so that their direct gains would more than
theology is supposed to have done, and tinged his mental processes with another sort of intellectual doubt? In some ways, intellectual doubt may be intellectual damage. On the other hand, is it not morə possibly a habit growth of that which (in the East, at any rate) we have, but have no name for-ennui ? Consider some of the little grumbles bigly growled over, and say if it is not the case with some of us that
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life were exceedingly flat With nothing whatever to grumble at.' The English sailor, if Truth (vide cutting in our yesterday's paper) has not been un truthful concerning him, shares the tendency of his compatriots of louger periods of exile. A little incident has sufficed to warrant publication of a charge that will for a long time to come blacken Shanghai in the eyes of JACK TAR; and that, too, in fateful irony, inst after the Northern Port subscribed and strove en fête to do him honour. Another instance.
The Hongkong fire-fighters are coming in just now for what looks like cri- Who ticism, but is really grumble-ism. ever heard of a fire brigade that put out a fire quickly enough to forestall the inevitable grumbler? So far as the latest local grum- bles go, it appears that the Hongkong fire- men are inefficient because Government has so far omitted to install a suitable method of summoning them to disprove their in- With electric fire calls, and efficiency. other most modern appliances, there will steal a occasionally be a fire that will march upon them, and enable the grumbler to saunter up with his hands in his pockets to pass judgment with incisive certainty. Hands in pocket! Aye, there's the rub! If particular notice were paid to all the grumblers, if they were given all they think they want, Messrs. the
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