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Certain Japanese authorities are arre ting the more responsible Chinese employees working in these concerns on what is confidently believed to be trumped up charges. Under the existing very un- satisfactory conditions ruling in this area there appears to be nothing that can be done to protect these employees or, at the least, to see that they have a fair opportunity of clearing them- selves from fictitious accusations. This development is already having an unsettling effect on labour and if it increases to any degree we may see another exodus from this area. It is a peculiar coincidence that it seems that the victims of this terrorism are almost invariably employed in British Industries and little imagination is required to appreciate the harm that could be done to British Interests if this system continued unchecked.
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BRITISH COMPANIES IN WHICH THERE ARE CONSIDERABLE CHINESE INTERESTS :- The se Companies were formed largely to protect British interests in which large sums of money were due to British firms for the supply of machinery, etc. and to prevent
Under these Companies from being interfered with by the Japanese. this category are the following Companies; the Japanese authorities have refused to recongize these as British Companies and their plants are still paralyzed and unable to function:
China Textiles Manufacturing Co. (Jess field)
China Spinners (Jessfield)
3. CHINESE OWNED INDUSTRIES:- In the earlier days of the hostilities the Japanese military seized the machinery of a great many of the Chinese owned industrial plants and sold the same to Japan as scrap iron. In a great many instances, more especially with regard to cotton mills, the Japanese have seized the plants and are operating them themselves, and in other cases they are operating these plants without the consent of the owners, assuring the latter that 50% of the profit derived from working the plants will eventually be paid to the owners. The Chinese owners in many cases were able to dismantle and remove a certain amount of machinery which, together with new machinery which had been pur- chased abroad and had since arrived and the purchase of further machinery, has been utilized for the ereetion of new plants in the western district. A list is attached, from which it will be seen
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