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scale on premium income, This legislation was no doubt
introduced with a view to eliminating the competition of the
numerous foreign companies, and it actually succeeded in
driving out several British, two American, and nearly all
the German Companies. It had the indirect effect of placing
in the hands of the Japanese Government a control over the
operations of all insurance companies in war time does not
exist in Chine.
So far as the general question of German agencies for
British firms is concerned it is clear that insurance is dis-
tinct from other forms of agency. There is doubtless some
ground for the contention that in Insurance matters it is the
agents who employ the companies but, in the case of piece goods
for instance, it cannot be claimed in anything like the same
degree that the agents employ the manufacturers, Whilst a
certain number of shippers and brokers in Manchester may be
interested in enabling a number of German firms in China to
survive the effects of the war, it appears to me to be in
the real interest not only of British firms in this country,
but also of British manufacturers generally, to seize this
opportunity to strike a permanent blow at the trade of our
commercial rivals,
It is generally held that the major advantage in all
transactions