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and those which have necessitated the reconstruction of the Chartered Mercantile Bank are very generally known, it is astonishing that a banker (one of the signatories of the Memorial, Mr Whitehead, is the manager of a local Bank), should have referred to the cases of the ... as two Banks in question, affording argument in favour of the reduction of certain official salaries in Hongkong.
The principal and incomparably the most important bank in Hongkong is the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank; the last half-year's accounts have not yet been published, but I have unimpeachable authority for stating that its transactions for that half-year have been the most satisfactory and profitable that it has had for many years past. The Chinese banks in the Colony also find it difficult...
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