HAMBURG LETTER.
+
PROUILLY WRITTEN FOR THE HONGKONG
DAILY PLESS"]
BURG, July 30th. THREATENING END OF A BHIPPING POOL
that
now
London a few months ago.
THE COST OF THE WAR TO KUROPE.
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 22ND, 1913.
|
COMPANY PROMOTION, UNTRUE STATEMENTS IN A PROSPECTUS.
DIMICTONS RESPONSIBILITIES:
In the High Court, Mr. Justice Astbury recently decided that the directors of the Ankobra Rubber Estates (Limited) were liable to pay compensation to a subscriber for shares in the company for a loss suffered by him through antrue statements in the prospectus.
reasonably in relying on statements by interested persons. They had no reason- able ground for honest belief such as a prudent man would exercise in his own affairs. The defendants must pay such sum in compensation as might be found due to the plaintiff on inquiry, and the costs up to the date of the order.
Leave to appeal within 14 days, was given.
CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS.
NEW OFFICIALS MORE CORRUPT THAN THIS OLD.
THE MARRIAGE SYSTEM A WICKED GAMBLE,
A LONDON MAGISTRATE'S VIEWS.
The reform of the Divorce Law was discussed at a meeting of the Actresses Franchies League at Portman Rooms, and Mr. Plowden, the well-known Meteo politan magistrate, who attended by special invitation, described the present syster as disgrace to civilisation.
SUNDAY GAMES.
Says the Pall Mall Gazette :-The chief reason which led the London County Council to refuse permission for Sunday golf in Hainault Forest was apparently. the fear of being accused of class favouritism. If golf is allowed in one open space, the argument ran, why not Sunday cricket and football another 1 And if the parks are to be filled with the sports of impetuous youth, what about the working man's quiet Sunday after. noon stroll with his wife and family? Miss Gertrude Kingston, who presided, This real question appears to be one of after mentioning that she was a widow, practical arrangement according to the expressed disapproval of easy divorce, circumstances of each particular locality, because when a person first discovered except for them who still take the deception the first outburst of disap diminishing view that all Sunday recrea- painted affection might result in a too tions (xcept leafing are immoral. Where hasty action. If a woman obtained a gans would interfere with the general divorce in May cho might realise her pleasure of non-athletic park patrons. mistake in July, and think that it would that is it sound reason for got permitting have been bust to forgive instead of being them. Where there is room for cricket or robbed of the opportunity of bestowing golf without inconveniens to those who upon a husband that care and attention prefer to hear the band or the Socialist that a good wife desired to bestow.
urator, it seems only promoting the cult- Mrs. Ben Webster expressed the view of what Mr. Stowart Headlam calls
artificial sins," that divorce was the only remedy for a
to interpose", a that people so often appended the fact miserable marriage, and deplored the fact Organized games would be a vast improve happy urion the offimaded expression,
ment upon the dawdling inanity in which so large a portion of juvenile London passes the first day of the week. Those who wish to keep the golfer out of Hainault have doubtless the best of motives, but the idea that they are acting as the moral saviours of potential park cricketers is a gross delusion.
at least the meeting of the delegates of the Balkan States in Bukharest to-day is interpreted in that sense by the Press generally, and the stock markets display greater firmness. Turkey, however, `in defance of the protests of the Great There is little of interest to report this Powers and emphatic warnings on the week, uulcus it be the fact that differences part of Russia and Austria, refuses to have arieen between the Hamburg Ame-evacuato Adrianople and persists in her rica Line and the Norddeutsche Lloyd in demands for a rectification of the bound Bremen with regard to their respective ary line laid down in the Treaty of
According to the report in The Times, shares in the passenger traffic of the
of July by the company was registered North Atlantic, shipping pool, which may
in 1910, with a capital of £60,000, divided A writer in the Manchester Guardian, eventually prevent a renewal of the What the war has cost Europe directly into 600,000 shares of 25. each to acquire in the course of an article on China of combine at its expiration on December and indirectly it is impossible to estimate and exploit a rubber concession in the To-day," chserves: The Chinese are The allotment even approximately. Monsieur Edmond district of Axim, in West Africa. The alone among nations of the earth in detest st of the present year.
prospectus was issued on April 23, 1910, ing violence and cultivating reason. Their was tunde in 1991, when the Norddeutsche Théry, the well-known writer on coomoni and contained the following statements, instinct is always to compromise and save Lloyd took the lead with two to three cal subjects, has just published an article which the plaintiff complained of as everybody's face. And this is the main the Economiste Européen showing untrue that the concession was a rubber reason why Westerners despiss them. The regular express boats a week, whilst the in
the the depreciation in the value of French concession; that the concession was bound Chinese, they aver, laveno guts." And Hamburg company was still on threshold of its mighty expansion. Since securities since the first of January ofed by the Mumfray and Ankobra rivers, when hard pressed as to the policy of the near the village of Mousn; that it com- | Western Powers in China thay, will often He includes 162 of the best prised over 3,000 acres of rubber; that the quite frankly confess that they consider then things have changed and the Ham this year."
revision of the and most important ones of an aggregate company's property had the advantage the West has benefited China by teaching burg line claims
On of the cecurity of title afforded by her the use of force. That this should the face value of 60 milliard francs. agreement, alleging
colony; that a report on the property had Pagan civilisation is one of the tronics of already been going on for some time, been obtained from Mr. R. G. Rogerson, history. But it is part of the greater they were worth about 50,200 million F.R.3.5.; that the concession contained irony which gave the Christian faith to Franes, and on the 30th of June last only a large number of Funtunia rubber trees precisely those nations all of who 5,843, a decline of 2,417 millions in the ready for tarping; that the concession fundamental instincts and convictions was ig he lieart of the mahogany country were and are in the most radical course of six nullus, of which 10 war and that experts spoke very highly of the antagonism to its teaching. on French fente and bed on railway bonds timber on the property; that logs could Though, however, it is broadly true that The be transgusted to the coast at a trifling the Chinese have relied on reason and guaranteed by the Government ! entire loss from the beginning can, there cost; that the property was held on lease justice in a way and to a degree which fore scarcely have been less than three for 20 years from June 20, 1901, at a iucnerivable in the West, they have not milliard franes on French investments rent of £12 while operations were confined | hen without their share of original in alone, whilst it is of course impossible to to cutting wood and trees, to be increased Violence, anarchy, and corruption have ascertain the amount of foreign securities to 2:00 if mining operations should be played a part in their history, though a held in France. As other countries must undertaken; and that this lease had been les part than in the history of most have suffered in a like manner the duly registered. This prespectus was countries, And these forces have been general want of confidence and lack of signed by the defendants, W. H. Peach, specially evident in that department to J. R. Cort, A. J. Gordon Fiell, and W. which Westerners are apt to pay the enterprise is not surprising.
Geipel, us directors the company.
greatest attention in the department of The plaintiff, upon the strength of this government. Government has always been prospectus, subscribed For 1,000 shares in less important in Chim than in Western the company, and had paid £100 for them. States; it has always been rudimentary in its organisation; and for centuries it has been incompetent and corrupt. Of this corruption Westerners, it is true, make more than they fairly should. China is no more corrupt, (to say the least) than the United States or Italy or eighteenth century. And much that is
squeeze, necessary, and called corruption is recognised and established
Imperator, the largest steamer in the December 31st, 1912, when the war haud registration in the British courts of the be the main contribution of Christians to she has made her bed and must lie
TRADE PROSPECTS.
in Lodz and neighbourhood, the Polish and the promoter's solicitors that the new spinning centre. There is no sign of an concossion, called Ganaka, was a larger improvement in Austria-Hungary, the and better property. The report alleged country that has been most affected by to have been made by Mr. Rogerson the war; it may be mentioned in illustra related to the first property, but it was tion of this that a reduction of 40 per then adapted with slight alterations to cent in the oattern of the cotton mille suit the Gamaks properly and sterield has not proved sufficient to raise their Rogerson. The defendant prices of yarns to a level that will ever however, was at aware of this alteration the cost of production!
The defendants in their statement of defence and by their evidence alleged that they had acted reasonably and honestly in reliance on the report of an expert (Mr. Rugerson), and that they were therefore entitled to the protection given by action 84 of the Companies (Consolidation) Act,
the
Chinese official is corrupt much as Lord was corrupt; and Chancellor Bacon whether the Chancellor ought properly to be called corrupt is still matter of con- Moreover, the people have troversy.
When the always had their remedy. recognised."
squeeze" is exceeded, they protest by riot So that the Chinese system, in the most unfavourabic view, may be described as corruption tempered by anarchy.
it
In any other partnership there could be a disolution. but many hell that a distressed woman should allow her happiness to be rained, and not remake a bed made when she was too young to know herself and realise what marriage entailed.
Mr. Plowden said legislation to extend the grounds for divorce was bound to come. He had authority to say that a bill had been drafted to carry into action the proposals of the Majority Report of the Commission. The bill was in the capable hands of Sir David Brynme Jones, and he believed it was inid on the table of the House of Commons the previous day.
not
INTIMATIONS
THE BEST
veto.
No feverish agitation was required-no ammoth demonstrations in Hyde Park.
even the destruction of a single THE BREWER'S windowpnae. What was required were a few penetrating lines in a short Act of Parliament, and there would be lifted an immense load of misery from thousands of humnos which were at present rent nsunder by conjugal strife.
DEVORER BY MUTUAL CONSENT. Referring to his police-court experience
take an interest in the divorce question. pathy with the poor that caused him to "I live amongst the poor," he added.
than in the slums and alleys of London,"
world, has commenced its regular service between this port and New York, to be followed in due course by two more boats of the game size, the capital invested by the Company on that line is many times greater than that employed by the Bremen ompany for the purpose and entitles it to a large quota in the traffic, a clause in the original agreement, which was subsequently annulled by desire of the Norddeutsche Lloyd, having provided for Moreover, the changes of that kind.. Hamburg America Line asserts that a renewal of the North Atlantic ship pool basis would not be in the interest of the
The renewed outbreak of internecine war continental members, since, owing to the
in China is a further depressing factor. withdrawal of the Canadian Pacific and Business consequently continues slack the Allan Line, they will already in the with the exception perhaps of the woollen
CASE FOR THE PLAINTIFF Mr. Mickler, K.C., opened the case on present year be obliged to hand over large industries, the only encouraging accounts
cuts to the English companies for coming from Russia, where the prospects behalf of the plaintiff. According to the of an abundant harvest are acting as a which under the existing agreement they powerful stimulus to trade. The quanti evidence, the prospectus was originally aro receiving no equivalent. A redistri- ties of goods of all kinds and descriptions Prepared by the promoter of the company, one Burton, and related to a different that are being forwarded to Nijni bution has therefore become imperative. Novgorod for the fair are so great that property from that which was eventually France, or than England was in the of separations, he said it was his sym It is further argued that whereas Brenes inland freights have advanced 20 per purchased. When this became known Mr. in the beginning devoted her efforts cent. The called printing works in the Gripe refused to have anything further almont exclusively to the American traffic Moscow district are reported to be work to do with the company, but was eventual she has since extended her, operations in ing double shifts, but this may be purtigly prevailed upon to continue as director, understood to be necessary, to supplement and I don't believe a more patient and other directions as well, obtaining a por- tion of the carrying trade with South Amarica, East Africa and the East, an understanding having been arrived at between the two companies with regard be the latter, according to which the Norddeutsche Lloyd took charge of the imperial mail service and the passenger traffe, whilst the Hamburg Ainetien Line turned its attention chiefly to the convey-
TO SAVE ONE MINUTE. ance of cargo. This by mutual desire will be discontinued after October 1st,.
£70,000 EXPENDITURE AT KARL'S COUNT. 1914, both companies sharing in the
A sum of £10,000 in save one minute!100% ~ passenger traffic as well as in that of
the expenditure which the Mr. Micklen, K.C., in reply said that The Norddeutsche Lloyd in an That is goods.
at no fraud was alleged against the defen. article in the Weser Zeitung, to which the District Railway has undertake
Earl's Court. When the work is om danta, but it was plain that they had foregoing is a reply had stated that it plated towards the end of the year, no issued the prospectus without making Was neither
the
of capital ewer than 100 trains per hour-fifty in proper inquiries. Although some of the run through statements in the prospectus might be invested in a certain servien nor the Bach direction-will be
Earl's Court, a record in transportation literally true, the defendants would still aggregate number of ships owned by anywhere.
be liable if they conveyed a misleading For many years, save The Earning impression to those who read the pros. company that should, determine the ap
Standard, -the District Hailway
Shod pect us--freenwood ". Leather portionmout, but the actual sikount of
has suffered from the fact that up-Putney and the down-
Whe:1 (1:00, I Ch., 421). Section 84 of the business carried on; for if the tonnage the.
lines
Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, outside *cross were to be the standard every now steamer Hammersmith put into commission would have to hear's Court, rendering fast working as gave protection to directors who had made impossibility. Briefly, the work now in statements on the authority of an expert, taken into necount and changes would be hand involves the carrying of one line by but it must be shown that they had reason incessant. They bad three large steamera
means of tunnels under the other, that able ground for believing that the export now in the course of construction which, there will be no interference to fast was competent, and that had not been ones finished, would bring their tonnage
When the improvergent
completed, engaged in the North American trade up
at least one minute will be saved in the
Mr. Justic Astbury found that the
KING ALFONSO'S LEGACY. to that of the Hamburg: Line.
working of every train that passes Earl's Court: In addition, the working of the statements referred to in the prospectus were false, except as regarda registration
The extraordinary will case which is non-stop trains wil be facilitated, as some The strike in the Hamburg shipbuild-uf the existing curves will be straightened of the Company's property and of the being tried at St. Gaudens, and in which Addi- lease in the British courts of the colony. King Alfonso X111. Ggures as sole legatce out, and speed will be higher.
of a French millionaire, ns, as is well tional lines, also, will be brought into With regard to this latter statement in
an extra down-line to West the prospectus it was questionable, but known, been going on for some time, and There seems now on the point of coming to a Brompton and an extra ap-line to keep he did not hold it to be untrue.
was no justication for saying that the termination. The Public Procurator has the working of the North-Western steam trains apart from the district electric property was a rubber concesion, except concluded in favour of maintaining the service. The work was started last that the defendants were assured by will. This is, of course, not a decision It was said that the of the court, but it may mean a reat November, and and was due to be com- the promote pleted by October next. Owing to the defendants and acted reasonably in deal in the final judgment, as in Juch diffenty of getting material, the conrrelying on ti report of Rogerson, who cases the Public Procurator's opinion is pletion of the improvement will not be was an expert. All that the defendants of considerable importance. The case is carried out before December.
had done was to ask the solicitor to the very peculiar. So far, the up-Putney ling is complete promoter whether legal matters in connec resident of Montauban-de-Luchon, pus- He left a near blood except for the laying of the permanenttion with the property were in order. It sessed a fortune of more than three
atuonut
THE SHIPBUILDERS' STRAKK. -
ing yards has spread to Kiel, Stettin, Bremen, Vegesack and Geestemünde in spite of the disapproval of their leaders and the unqualified condemnation of the central conunittee of the metal workers in Berlin, who have convened a meeting of their members for Angust 8th to further consider the matter. In tlie atean time the local committees have found themselves obliged to rescind a fortner. resolution and to grant strike pay, which shows that here, as in yo any other
traffic.
1160, 25.
is
done.
THE JEDIMENT.
And this systern. it is admitted, still prevails after the Revolution. Clearly indeed it cannot be extirpated until officials are properly paid; and China is not in a position to pay for any reform while the Powers are drawing away an enormous percentage of hier resources by that particular form of rathery called by diplomatists indemnity." The new oficials, then, are corrupt as the old Educated abroad, clits were, and they are something more. They are Jacobins they are as full of ideas as was Robes pietre or St. Just; and their ideas are even more divorced from sentiment, tradi tion, and human fecling. A foreign education te make a cut right press a Chinaman's life. He returns with a now head; and this head never gets into normal relations with his heart. That, I believe, is the essence of Jacobinism ideas working with enormous rapidity
traditional feelings.. and freedom unchecked by the fly-whiet of
In many cases, he continued, separa tions led women to the gutter or work- house through no fault of their own. What was wanted was not medicing, but a surgical operation. When a woman discovered that she had married a drun- kard who terrorised her, or her partner became a lunatic, some people held that she should be bound to hit, "because the sanctity of the tie forhado divorce!
Whom God hath joined Others said:
But he was not going to confound God with a curate. (Laughter He would rather say, "Whain God has ceased to join let no mati and cheers)
Besides holding that keep together." divorce should be granted by mútaia] consent, he would like to see no warriage. legal unless it was performed before the registrar.
It
BREW
GUINNESS'S
414
WHEEL BRAND
STOUT.
SOLE AGENTS FOR CHINA:
RUTTONJEE
& SON,
11, QUEEN'S ROAD CENTRAL
Withou divorce, inarringe at the best an experiment was reduced to a wicked ganib, or if punished the ravent. That a couple whose confident hope of a happy union was replaced by a decision after marriage that they were not suited. had inocently forged was a cruel bar- could not break the Fetters which they H.
positive disgrace to
The most happy-go-lucky Tonrriage barits and civilisation. system on the face of the earth exists in the greatest Freedom in their choice of husband. No obstacle is ever put in a Burma, where the Burinese ladies possess
young girl's way by her parents or other members of the family when noce she bas made ap her mind to marry. So long as the suite is capable of supporting his prospective wife, that fact is invariably deemed to be a sufficient guarantee of eligibility. The Burmese girl's taste in and Hindus, Mahomedang, Panjabis, be mat of a husband is very catholis HOWARD Biuglese, Malay, Chinese, Japanese, and One very marked few Shans, are all to be seen in Burma with ture in respect of the Burman female is Burmese wives.. that, although she is ready and willing. at the shortest possible notice, to marry Albert Sapene, yet she seldom or ever leaves the conatry wer oirot even after a lapse ot man of any nationality under the sun,
possession of namerons offspring. This 20 or 30 years of married life, and the
WATCHES.
THE AMERICAN WATCH.
way; and the down-Euling line is also was impossible to say that directors could million francs. completed as far as it runs near the be relieved of their responsibility under relative, but during the greater part of is a masked peculiarity of the Burmese or Fixes Quality and Hem PreeLION places, the leaders have lost all control exhibition grounds. At the present time section 84 of the Companies (Consolida his life he lived apart, and when he made wine and is altog ther unexplainable.
over their men.
LABOUR TROUBLES AT JOHANNESBURG,
by
LANGKATS.
ÁDJUSTED. FOR TEMPERATURE
EARTH-SLIDES ON THE PANAMA CANAL.
POSITIONS.
to the
WATCH IS FIXED
AT THE FACTORY.
WHITE OR SEND FOR CATALOGUE,
it is being driven under the West Loudon
Various reasons are given for his having abroad. Railway, and gae of the two tunnels tion) Act, 1908, hy nierely accepting the bis will he disinherited his relative. Very few Burmese women are to be seen
statements of the promoter to the com- The news from Johannesburg with which are well-known to regular passen-
gers between West Kensington and Earl's pony or his agent. The statement that chosen the King of Spain as his sole or and the money. regard to the labour troubles there Court will be pulled down and the space the property was bounded by the Ankobra principal legates. It is said that he ad- River, which was convenient for trans wired the young Sovereign, whom he saw
on acveral occasione, bad; the men having taken up by a girder structure. ..very
With the up-to-date character of the port, rested on the same ground. It was besides, is left for special purposes. He refused the concessions offered
signalling appliances already installed at noticeable that Rogerson's report was died some two years ago in a lunatic
asylum at Braqueville. It is not quite The frequency of slides on the Panama THE PRICE OF THE HOWARD the mine owners, or rather imposed upon Earl's Court, it is estimated that the headed "Report upon Gamaka property,
310 SOONPY in the debris them by the Government. A general station when the latest improvement is and that report was circulated with the proved that he was insane when he died. Canal is causing some concern
insane caused by one slide removed than the strike in which the railwaymen are ex-in operation will be one of the busiest prospectus, but from evidence and free bus, according to the Public Procurator's engineers, as
in the world.
the contents of the report there would be opiniou, he certainly was not no doubt that these words did not form when l made the will. It has, at least. earth again moves, and thousands of tons pected to join is threatened for the
part of the original document, but were not been proved. The natural hoir, how are thrown into the excavation. The list beginning of next month, and-although
part of a document prepared by the ever, made insanity the basis for attack number of the Canal Necord, which is the the exact date has not been allowed to
The only ing the will, and the fact of the testator official Journal of the Canal Commission promoter or the directors/ transpire, August 4th is supposed to be
The following circular dated August justification for the defence that the having died at an asylum seemed at first published on the Isthmus, fere very the day fixed for the oessation of work.
of Saint eut the railway lines used to carry the Everybody is reported to be laying in 18th is issued over the signature of directora had reasonable grounds for their sight to justify the stand taken. The frankly to these movements, and shows stores for fear of communication with Messrs. John Prentice and W. S. Jack belief in the statements referred to was Public Procurator, who gave his opinion the concern felt. In the great Culebra
son, directors of the Langkat Company that they were confirmed by Mr. Cort and before the civil tribunal
in the Cucaracha cut only one through other places being interrupted.. The When we published the output for the the promoter of the company, and that Gaudens, admitted that it might appear excavated material have been buried, and
The same remark that M. Sapene was partially insane, and
upe is. in motion," the situation is rendered more serious by month of July we thought it was only was not sufficient.
As to mahogany but he also had lucid intervals, and there The whole slope
and some cracks have signs of anrest amongst the natives, the right to inform you that, in the opinion applied to the statement that the property that he had the mania of persecution line is in services
acized quantity of Me Chapman and Mr. Moon, the out- comprised 3,300 acres. police having
put is likely to decline further and they and timber, which was stated to be on the is nothing to prove that he did not enjoy Record says,
rock shoulder in about the centre of the of seditious publications in the consider it quite impossible at present roperty, those statements were not justis the full use of his mental faculties at developed farther hack on the hill. The face line of the slide, which gave way native languages which were being to say when it may be expected to in-fied by Rogerson's report and no other the time that he made the will.
under pressure a few months ago. is CHS. J. GAUPP distributed amongst thein,
moving the remainder of the mass, and whether prove. In consequence of this informa experts" spoke of it. He found that Court will shortly make its division by the strikers or others has not beention it has been decided not to pay the defendants had no reasonable grounds third interim dividend at present. By of belief in the statements of which the
current United States Consular is now about eighty feet west of its ascertained so far. The effect of this on the time that it is necessary to consider plaintiff complained. No questions were
against a high bank of loose material, the trade has been to stop all business out the question of paying a dividend in agbad expert as to the title to the lease Report issued from Washington says original position. In some of the slides,
December we shall be in a position to judge fairly accurately what the result and other legal matters. The defendants Japanese toys are rapidly supplanting where the shovels are working close
It is had assumed without independent inquiry those made in Germany in many of our of the year's working has been: impossible to say yet whether we shall be that the facts were as represented to them departments." states a large importer of work is attended with a certain amount in re Dive, Dive Roebuck (1909, I Ch., toy Union Jacks are made in Japan, and sudden landship. The engineer and the
other
for signs of danger, and back their able to pay a dividend then, as so innch by Cort and the promotor. The case of toys in London. "Thousands of gross of of peril on account of the danger of a depends on the output between, now and
321) applied here. and was a suficient also the majority of the small nodding craneman are kept constantly on the clert machines away from the spot at the first October 31st next.
authority. The defendants had not acted animals, jumping rabbits, and
manifestations. novelties."
H
there and to make exporters on this side
delay their shipments.
THE SALSAN SITUATION AND THE MARKETS.
Affairs in the East, on the other hand, have assumed a more promising aspect.
Enown,
A
The
THE SOLE AGENTS:
& CO.,
ALEXANDRA BUILDINGS.
CHATES ROAT
[41