AT
}
to
which
in render illegal contracts the brokers sign "for the concerned." It is to the opportunity this practice affords for underhand dealing that the un- satisfactory character of the Hongkong stock market is largely due. It allows the large operators to remain in the background and pull the strings at their pleasure. The brokers are almost helpless in the matter, for if they refused to sign when requested they would simply throw the business into the bands of their competitors. To render compulsory the declaration of the principal
in all cases would not be such a satisfactory | way of dealing with the question as Mr. KESWICK'S Bill, but it would go a long way
to cure the evil. Mr. MACKINTosa's sugges- tion to put a higher stamp duty on contracts in which the shares are not identified by numbers, and to make the daty payable on each transaction instead of allowing the cir- culation of blank transfers, ought also to be taken into consideration. The ventilation of the subject will, we think, lead to some good, even if the remedy for the admitted jevil does not take the shape of the Bill in-
troduced by Mr. KESWICK.
675