CO129-440 - Others & Individuals - 1916 — Page 706

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The Under Secretary of State

8

May 24th, 1916.

*705

If however the Bank did mysteriously possess all these parti- culars of a business belonging to others, how is it that they did not know the vital fact that Messre, keiss were absolutely debarred from ap- proaching the Texas Company ? 1 do indeed wonder what mr. Stabb, the Hongkong manager of the Bank, and Sir Charles Addis, London manager, will think of this accusation by Mesars. Keisa; and my counsel is cur- ious to know what his confreres in London would say to this pretty Hongkong story, as he calls it.

Of course,

it

it was quite within the province of the Bank to sent its manager a confidential cable, indicating to him that, as San- ders, kehders would not be given port and cable facilities in Hongkong for any agency in which they were concerned (surely wrong as this state- ment is),they did not like to be interested in the finance of this cargo

and that I should be informed to this effect surely not the Texas

Company

-

so as to enable me to put this finance into other hands. That

is all the Bank is concerned with.

Now, as to this statement as to port and cable facilities, it

the

is of course quite evident that H.E. Governor has never made the sweep- ing statement because it would be in direct contradiction to the follow- ing facts:

that

▲) that your Office informed my Company on the 4th January last A H.E. the Governor, after stating that Mr.Cheetham had resigned his post, was prepared to recognize Messrs. Keiss & Co., provided they be appointed my Company's agents both at hongkong and Canton.

B) that not only did we offer to appoint this firm our agents, but proposed to give them a far stronger hold upon this business, name-

ly to admit them as a party to the Texas Agreement itself.

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