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an application, for remuneration in respect of the work I have
carried out in this matter, to be transmitted, if you see fit,
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies or the Government
of Hongkong.
I should mention in the first place that if in the ordinary
course of events the Colonial Governments concerned had effected
their purchases through a Saigon rice-exporting firm it would
probably have had to be done on a commission basis of 2 or 21%.
A partner of Messrs Grammont & Cox, a leading firm of Saigon,
informed me that the French Government have paid his firm a com-
mission of 2% on purchases of rice effected on their behalf,
while another firm, the Societe Franco-Belge, offered the Dutch
Consul to purchase rice on behalf of the Netherlands East Indies
at a commission of 2%, which offer was, however, not accepted,
the Dutch Consul making the purchases direct. But it is unlikely considering the standards of commercial morality prevailing here,
that such a commission would have represented any preponderant
proportion of the charges that would have been indirectly paid
by Colonial Governments, which would probably have included con-
siderable commissions from the firms supplying the rice (all, of
course, being allowed for in the ostensible contract price). On
the other hand, the exporting firms, with their greater exper-
ience and opportunities of buying in smaller quantities, would,
if commissions were not allowed for, probably have been able to
purchase rice a little cheaper from the Chinese than an official
buyer could, though of course the price to be added for the ex-
port licenses would always have remained for the export firms,
to settle. The business methods of these firms have already
been dealt with in my previous despatch sufficiently fully, I
think, to show that it would have been undesirable for any
British/