CO129-426 - Public Offices - 1915 — Page 533

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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