CO129-438 - Public Offices - 1916 — Page 184

COPY.

17th January 1916,

178

and Accepting Houses to firms of good standing trading with

the Far East.

With regard to the charge that German firms in Hong

Kong, and presumably all the principal Treaty Ports in China, have consistently broken the undertakings given by them under the lattière of lien, I have already stated in my letter to Mr.Blackett, thit up! to the time of the outbreak of war, we had no conclusive evic hoo on this point. Nor do we know whether, if it is true in the case of

German firms in the Far East, it is not also true in the case of Be

firme.

I should like in conclusion to ask if you could see me

either tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon between five and six o'clock

there are some pointa in connection with this matter that I should

to discuss personally with you.

I remain, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

(Signed) Fred. Huth Jackson.

(Chairman of the Accepting Houses Committee.)

H.Fountain Esqre.,

Board of Trade,

Owydyr House,

Whitehall, 8.7.

2.3.ity Telephone number!

London Wall 880.

Dear Mr. Blackett,

The letter of the China Association conveys (and

is undoubtedly intended to convey) the suggestion that the

London financing and accepting houses have deliberately been

in the habit of giving a preference to German firms establish-

ed in China, over British firms doing a similar business,

This suggestion is, I am convinced, entirely untrue, and would

be repudiated by all the other accepting houses as strongly

as I repudiate it on behalf of my own firm,

It is undoubtedly true that a much larger portion of

the export.trade to China has in recent years passed into the

hands of German firms there, It is also probably true that a

large portion of this export trade, and more especially the

Manchester export trade, has been financed by London for ac-

count of these German firms. What the reasons are for this

transfer of business from British to German firms, I do not

know, but I dare say that this has been partly due to the fact

that the Germans have been willing to give more extended credit facilities to Chinese buyers than the British firms were willing/

to give. It is not within my province to express an opinion

as to whether these extended credit facilities have been justi-

fied by experience or not. But in any case I do not see that

London Bankers have prejudiced British interests by financing

these exports for German account more especially where these

exports have come from Manchester.

It is difficult to understand exactly what the Committee

of the China Association really mean by their frequent reference

to the bills held by the Government in "cold storage" until.

the end of the war. There is, I think, little doubt now that

the German firms in China have in many cases not strictly ob-

served

78.