"buy native goods" movement, Chinese merchants no longer
59
wish to be mistaken for British, if they ever did, and British
companies, or some of them, now try to appear as Chinese as
possible. The new subsidiaries of the British American
Tobacco Company are called Yee Tsoong (
themselves translate as "foster China".
) which they
Lest this causes a
smile, it may be added that they will at all events foster the
Chinese treasury to the extent of some $40,000,000 annually in
taxation.
4.
However, to revert to my conversation with Mr.
Oppenheim, I said that the addition to the Ordinance now in
question was inserted precisely to frustrate what his new
companies wished to do, and that exemption licences had another
object altogether.
I felt, therefore, that the matter was not
one to be dealt with by the issue of a licence, but that if his
companies' aims and purpose were considered legitimate, there
was a case for an amendment of the law.
5. I personally think that their views deserve favourable
consideration, and that in these days of fierce commercial
competition we should do nothing unnecessarily to hamper British
firms trading in China. Moreover, as I pointed out to Mr.
Oppenheim, the provision about the use of the characters ying
shang applies only to "China companies" and not to "Hongkong
"China companies" or companies incorporated elsewhere in the
Empire, which also do business in this country. I know of no
logical reason why such a distinction should be maintained.
6.
I suggested to him, therefore, that he should canvass
other business concerns in a similar position and see if they
would support the tobacco interests in petitioning for an
amendment of the Hongkong Companies Ordinance. It would only
be necessary to secure the omission of the few words relating
to this point at the end of section 93 (2). If there was
sufficient support for this proposal it should not be difficult
to