J0
THE HONGKONG. TELEGRAPH.
TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 4, 1919.
MR BUNG.
The funeral of a rich Chinese in a Northern city.
SOME POWERFUL FACTS.
loyal supporters of "the trade" surrounding him. waiting for dividends and determined to get
them.
Then canie the slump. The public found they had been in Under the above title," A.G.G." famously had. Some of the (Mr. A. G. Gardiner, the fats earlier floatations were honest: Editor of the Daily News) writes the bulk of them were impudent- the following article, which is wellly dishonest. The companies worthy of perusal by all who are were outrageously over-capita- interested in Home problems:-- lised the dividends were
When, in his green old age. paid; the shares fell to nothing. Mr. Bung, is asked by bis Mr. Bang. with the plunder in offspring the familiar question of his pocket, explained that it was the hoardings. And what did the wicked politicians who were you do in the greati
war, to blame. They would not let an Some.
not
randfather he will doubiles honest industry alone, reply, I did well. my son."
Hething must be döne. Mr. Bung had cannot very well say less: modesty j rasked the public, and now the will forbid him to say more, as nation must be rooked to put him he might. For to Mr. Bung the right with the shareholders. For war has been a golden harvest tunately he had the power to He is a prince among the pro-dictate. Mr. Ealfour had been fiteers. There may
be other returned on the flood ride of the achievements which have been Khaki election, and Mr. Bung. "more sensational, but none more with his well-known patriotism. deserving attention. For Mr. had been the chief engineer of Bung has not only done well, he thatfamous victory. Hedemanded has restored his dynasty.
At that the licences which belonged
a time when his brother across to the public and which he held the Atlantic is being deported as on an annual permit, should be an "undesirable citizen" he has come his freehold for ever and become more formidable than he ever. The theft was duly accom- has been for a generation.
!pli-bed. Mr. Bung was able to
If we are to appreciate the full turn to his shareholders and sas. measure of the miracle the war Now I've paid my debt. First I fas wrought for him it is plundered you and now we're
Inalandered them.
Beces
pare to glance back.
the early ninettes Mr. Bung took fright. Up to that time
TH-GROWNING. MERÜY.. he had run his business
But still the great confidence family lines. He ha good thing trick of the nineties was not wiped and he kept is in his own hands out. Stil that burden of over- He controlled one of the political capitalisation hung like a mill- arties in the State and he did stone round the neck of the com. not fear Parliament. for through pames. Then came "the crowning is public-houses he had posses- meres of the war and Govern
We
*ion of the most powerful electoral ment beer. A glorious era. machine in the land. But he cut down the supply of beer; upt
danger ahead. Popular soured the price.. We lowered education W29 beginning to the gravity the public paid for
bun shops water.
sax
tell: tea and
The more the beer was were springing up to challenge watered the more precious it the ancient monopoly of the became. We reduced the hours public-house the great inspira- of opening. Good. That, said
must be above these vicissitudes of fortune. Its profits are sacred. Now in the light of this gift, ler us look into the calamity that bas befallen Mr. Bung and estimate the losses the gift is intended to make good. I will compare the year 1917 with 1913. It would serve my purpose better to take 1918, but the figures for that year;
To enable His Royal Highness to view the Battle of Verdun from a safe distance, this monster portable periscope was constructed for the German Crown Prince. The relic was displayed at West Reint recently.
JOHN, I WANT TO ASK YOU
A SIMPLE QUESTION -
ANSWER YES OR NO~
• HOW DO YOU LIKE
"THIS HEK! HAT
ST?
The motor ship Yuen Fang, formerly the Newchwang Light- ship, was bought by Collinette & Co., for trading purposes, She took fire some weeks ago near Tong-ku and is lying there a total wreek.
About £300,000 was so capitalised, and the chairman, Mr. Waters Butler, said there had been evid ence of an increasing teridency to State control and ultimately to purchase after the war. The State should therefore, have some indication of the capital values with which it was dealing."
Beautifully simple, isn't it? But there is one place where the truth will out, no matter what ingenuities are employed. It is in the market prices of the shares. Here is a little table of the price of shares which will throw a flood of light on the facts. 1915. 1917. 1919.
22544 86
Allsopp's City of 'don
Guinness Watney
1216 91 185 21334 30714 39116 10: 85 169
From these figures it will be seen that anyone who invested £2,000 in, say. Allsopp's, even as late as 1915-long after the war had commenced now holds shares to the value of £85,000, a net gain of £84.000. Even in this golden age of the profiteer. this is a record that will not be easily surpassed.
Lady Thackersey, wife of Sir V. D. Thackersey, a wealthy Parsee manufacturer of Bombay.
THE 1914 BASIS. The course is plain enough. It to take over the Trade
WHEN PUECHASE COMES. But it is not in connection with the subject of profiteering that the matter is most important at this time. The war is over, the war conditions are passing away hours are being extended, the manufacture of beer is being in-1 creased, the Trade is returning to | its normal freedom in possessionis of the wealth created by the war for the 1911 scale of values. and with new claim- founded on its That basis was laid down by the astonishing prosperity. Are those Government Committee presided claims to be consolidated into a jover or Mr. Herbert Samuel in permanent rested interest at the 1915. It was a Committee which expense of the community? That, represented authoritatively every as the speech I have quoted indi-interest. concerned. It inclad- cates. is what is in the mind of ed the Governor of the Bank the Trade. It knows that reaction of England, Sir Harmood Banner will come. that the influence of representing the Trade, Mr. the great movement in America | Snowden. Sir Thomas Whittaker, will touch these shore sooner or and other responsible authorities. later, bringing with it a demand It arrived at unanimous deci- that this formidable power shall sion as to the price of purchase-- be effectually controlled. And in viz.. 350 million pounds. preparation for the
inflation chal-The
uf the war un leaps and bound. In Economist of March 1. there Ind and Coope from nil to 74 and preparing to convert that windfall ignored. The Trade has grown
the to 30, Whitbread's from 2 to 7.
lenge the Trade. not content with has probably doubled the figure, the vast windfall of the war. is but that inflation mus. be was a comparison of the profits so on. of the leading arms, in 1915-16)
into a basis of purchase. to love the fresh air: there was a the good, honest man should not Consumption Barrels Drink Bill and the two following years. ends or even to the declared profits, appreciated by the unfortunate allowed to
fabulously rich by selling water The audacity of the idea will be to the cossamer: it cannot be boom in recreation; the pneu suffer ou that score.
1913.92,000,000...£165,700,000 Here are a few typical cases: to see what was happening. The railway shareholders. They, too, ments by selling watered stock crown its achieve- matic tyre and the electric tram Let us take particular note of 1917.37,000,000... 259,000,000
1915-16. 1917-18. good fortuce was too great to be have come under the control of to the State. The protection of were taking the young fellows this gift of millions in respect of That is to say, in 1917, for rather Arnold Perrett... £15,427 £40,576 revealed in its naked characters. and even old fellows out into the the licence duty. It has been more than one third of the com- Bass
295,628 437,123 For example, Ind, Coope made
the State during the war, and the public cannot be looked guntry; and so on. And the going on for years. It is going modify sold, the trade pocketed Ind. Coope 2,484 252,953 £262,953, "but the actual sum
their property may claim to have for from the present Parlia als had come back to power, on at this moment, when even nearly 1999,000 more than it Allsopps... 36,811 181,062 distributed was only £23,671, Ining upon the issue of the war as the
had at least as important a bear-ment, which is thronged with the author of Local Option the most thoughtless minds in the received in 1913. Its trade was Threlfalls ... 80,885 239,586 some cases huge profits went to
vested interests. the a potential Premier Alto Press are beginning to see the cut down by nearly two thirds, Watney,Comba 206,009 472.974 reserve; in others new shares
the very thin beverage which exploitera, and the pro£teera. gether, a black outlook.
shadow of bankruptcy over the and its receipts went up by more In the case of fifteen firms the were created out of reserve, and
Mr. Bung had retailed with such | But Labour has fortunately taken Butg did not like it. He re-nation. It was given and is than a third. The explanation is profits in two years had risen, so the dividend was kept at a
profit. But so far from sharing over the brief for the public. It membered the public. If he was given of course on the assump simple enough, As it reduced after the payment of debenture figure that would not shock the railway shareholders have seen throughout the country for the in his enormous good fartune the is organising a great campaign about to sink the time had come tion that the shorter hours the quality it put up the price. interest and all administrative public.
Here is a to "Aoat."
meant thal Mr. Bang The consumer paid more and expenses, from
newspaper their property reduced to some public ownership and control of £2,591.060 to extract, Jan. 22, 1918: would have less profit. Other peo-j more the less he go: and the £4,164,048, an aggregate increase
thing like insolvency and their the Trade. It has declared for BOOM AND SLEMP
"Mitchell. and Butlers, the bakers and worse it became.
share values fall to twenty-five the 1915 And so he floated." He had ple, grocers and
of over
valuation a million and a half. Birmingham brawers, "to-day de-
29 the per cent, and more below the pre-maximum figure, and it will fight. Dividends bounded up joyfully. cided to made a further distribu- two objects in view. He could candlestick makers might have realise the bulk of his wealth and
less profits-might indeed be
Perrett's, who had paid nothing tion of nearly £500,000 undivided
war figures. They have had to the battle out on that line. It pass on the risks to the innocent shut up altogether and whipped
in 1914, paid 33 13 per cent in profits in the form of additional they will be lucky to get out on polic opinion with it in this last windfall, and they know that will have the whole weight of shareholder, and he could fortify off to the war-but the Trade
1917-18, Threlfall's went from 9 share capital to existing holders.
a pre-war basis.
struggle with Mr. Bang.
tion that had come into municipal Mr. Bung, means that you must are not citat my command. Hara life with the formation of the reduce the licence duty. And 80 is a table giving a comparison of Landon County Council was full two and a half millions a year the liquor consumad and tha
to him so that money paid in these two years: of menace; people were Iarning was remitted
the trade by enrolling a great army of volunteers who having invested their money in it, would fight to protect it. He would broaden the basis of self-interest.) It was a great idea. Mr. Bung) baited his book, and the trout rose hungrily to it. The temper of the time was singularly pro- pitious. It was the time of Barney Barnato and Whitaker Wright, when the whole country was swept by a wave of speculation, believed anything it read in a pro- spectus and went to bed expecting to awake rich in the morning- if not out of the gold of the rad, or "Northern Terrore," then out of beer. In the course of five years Mr. Bung took some two bundred millions. of money from the pockets of the public. There was nothing that called itseif a brewery that the public would not scramble to own, and at the end of the wave Mr Bung aat triumphant with the money in his pocket and a vast host of
LEAPS AND BOUNDS.
The result was what might be expected is such circumstances. The profits of the breweries went
THE DUFFS.
OLNIA, WOULD YOU CARE TO GO TO THE BALL GAME TOOey with Tom? I INTENDED!
GOING BUT HAD TO CHANGE
MY PLANS -
I WAS GOING TO MEET MABEL BUT I GUESS I'LL CALL IT OFF AND GO
TO THE GAME
How To GET
Tittl
But we must not look to divid-
Olivia is Sensitive About Her Weight.
WELL GO AND TELL TOM, DES WAITING ON THE PHONE.
HELLO, TOM - VIKY, I GUESS I'LL GO TO THE GAME, VIITH YOU—-- ALTHOUGH I'VE GOT SOMETHING I OUGHT TO DO HAVE YOU SECURED THE
SEATS?
BY ALLMAN
ON THAT WON'T BE NECESSARY *** YOUR NOT AS HEAVY AS ALL TRAT ---
IT'S A STEEL AND CONCRETE STAND-
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