attack by unscrupulous speculators. The growth of Trade in China, Japan, and the Straits has developed a number of Limited Liability Companies which are registered in Hongkong, and Hongkong has thus become the chief centre for the sale and purchase of their Stock. The business of buying and selling has not, since its inception, been governed by any recognised rules and the intolerable scandals of last year, resulting in numerous breaches of trust, were primarily caused by the facilities given for unrestricted share gambling.

When shares in Public Companies have been forced, perhaps beyond their actual value, by certain speculators who have, or may have, no means, the Public (seeing men they usually regard as possessing knowledge of working results steadily buying) gather confidence and invest, not only their savings, but their credit, only to find the men who were buyers now selling, and are selling not only shares they have, but shares they expect to obtain out of the necessities of those who were led astray by their previous action, and who are unable to meet their bargains, leading to the depreciation...

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