!
FINANCIAL VALUE OF
AGENCY TO GERMAN AGENT.
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429
relinquish German Agencies while no restriction is placed on Japanese and other Companies would be nothing more or less than making a present to our Allies, or even to our Enemies, of our business.
It may be said that the commission paid by the British Insurance Companies to German Agents may find its way to
If Germany and support that country in its war with us. the German Agent lost his British Insurance Agency he would still secure the commission from other and non-British Insurance Companies. In any event, the rate of commission is not large, having regard to the considerable expenditure which has to be met by the Agent out of his commission for rent, clerical labour and other miscellaneous expenses. In fact, it is because an Insurance Agency is usually carried on as an adjunct to and in association with their main commercial operations that firms of standing concern themselves with it; the influence of the firm, or their power for good or ill, does not arise from the Insurance Agency, but from the extent of their other commercial operations upon which their qualifications to act as Insurance Agents depend. The withdrawal of the Agency would not, therefore, represent ary substantial disability to the Agent, whereas the loss to the Company, directly and indirectly, would be serious.
The motive of the organised campaign with regard to foreign trade is to capture the enemy's trade or to hurt the enemy through his commerce, and it is possibly assumed
GENERAL RESULT.