(COPY) C. 7567.
ARNHOLD, KARBEC & 00.
14, Fenchurch Street,
London, E. C.
17th August, 1914.
The Assistant Secretary,
Board of Trade,
(Commercial Department).
sir,
535
We have received through Messrs. Coward and Hawksley, Sons and Chance your letter of the 14th August and note that it is permissible for us to carry on our business with British, Allied or Neutral countries.
We presume that China is included in the latter category, in spite of the question of extraterritoriality and would ask you to be good enough to confirm to us that our understanding is correct.
The head office of our firm is in Shanghai, where our firm is registered in the German Consulate, and we have numerous branches in China, as also branches in London,
New York and Berlin.
Our reason for raising the above point is, that the British Banks still maintain that they are precluded
from dealing with our houses in China. If they maintain
this attitude we shall inevitably be forced to close our
doors, in which case the ultimate loss will fall mainly
on British Banks and British manufacturers, as, although
we are technically a German firm, by far the greater
proportion of our imports into China consists of British
goods, and our business is financed almost entirely through British Banks.
It