MI
representative of their own at Canton and it is a justifi-
able prophecy that their organisation will before long 175 rival that of the Oil and Cigarette companies who work on
the same lines. A traveller from the north of the
province informed me that the first thing that attracted his attention at Shaochoufu was an enormous advertisement of Sunlight Soap over the City Gate.
It is indeed only necessary to point to one of the most prominent features of trade in recent years the activities in the interior of such firms as the Asiatic Petroleum Company, the Standard Oil Company, the British American Tobacco Company, Lessrs Brunner Mond and Company and Bessrs Lever Brothers to demonstr te the success which attends a breaking with the traditional system of sales at the Treaty Ports through the medium of a compradore and native dealers.
-
The extension of the systems adopted by the above firms to others articles and the gradual superseding of the general import houses by houses dealing in specialised articles under the closer supervision of the manufacturers seem to offer the best hope for the expansion of British trade in Canton.
Such a modification of trade currents as is implied by the institution by manufacturers of separate distribution schemes is of course not very palatable to the existing firms in China and no doubt there are many vested interests both Foreign and Chinese to overcome. It is how- ever difficult to find any other solution to the problem of the systematic exploitation of the interior. It would be useful if the large Trade Associations in the United Kingcom would send out private missions under men acquainted with Far Eastern conditions to report on this specific point.
The method adopted y the large firms already mentioned is to establish a central distributing agency in the Treaty Port (Canton) under a staff of foreigners and
then