CO129-430 - Others & Individuals - 1915 — Page 611

SANDERS REHDERS & CO LTD

LONDON.MANCHESTER,NEW YORK

Telegraphic Address:-

"THEODOSIUS'

IFEN LONDON.

MANCHESTER

Telephones.

N* 4372 AVENUE, LONDON

NP 7184

N° 7105)

CITY, MANCHESTER.

IN REPLY PLEASE REFER TO

D

DEPARTMENT

sir.

108. Fenchurch Street."

London

The Under Secretary of State,

589

9th Dec. 1915.

B.C.

Colonial Office, Whitehall,

C. O

56768

REC S.W. REG 9 DEC 15

Some months ago, after protracted negotiations, our

tenure of the valuable agency for South China of the Texas

Company of New York and Port Arthur, Texas, was confirmed to

us by the acquiescence of H.E. the Governor of Hongkong and

of H.M.Colonial Office, in the appointment of Mr.Humphrey

Cheetham as our representative in Hongkong, with Messrs.Reiss

& Co. as his local advisers.

An inspector of the Texas Company who went to China

recently found, on visiting Hongkong, that in spite of in-

numerable difficulties, which we need not recapitulate, Mr.

Cheetham had fostered the interests of the Texas Company'■

business in Kerosene Oil (and Wax) in his territory with grati-

fying success. He seems, however, to have formed the opinion

that Mr.Cheetham was indifferently supported by Reiss & Co.,

and to have reported in that sense to New York.

The agency of the Texas Company for the whole of the

rest of China has been held nominally for the last three years

by a very prominent British firm, but as in all that time they