CO129-440 - Others & Individuals - 1916 — Page 83

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650,000 taels' worth of produce more than Great Britain, and the German export firms have also a very strong hold on the trade with the rest of the Continent and the United States. What have been termed the aristocratic exports of tea and silk still remain largely in British hands, but in the miscellaneous export of such articles as beans and seeds, hides, cotton, tallow and wood oil- an export which has been increasing at a very rapid rate British merchants are finding themselves very far behind. In the Tientsin produce market, where British firms already had a strong hold, they are managing more or less to hold their own, but the great and increasing Hankow trade before the War was almost entirely under German control. The reasons for this state of affairs

are many.

In the first place, our competitors went into trade on a large scale. They purchased sites in the concessions when land was cheap, equipped them with modern plant and laboratories, seed cleaning machinery, installations for purifying oils, tanks for storage, and large ware- houses for handling the produce, and developed the trade by scientific methods. Their Chinese compradores and staff opened branches at the main depôts up-country, and thither also were sent German buyers during the season, who at the same time unobtrusively pushed the sale of those articles of import of which their firm held stocks in Hankow, and kept their eyes open for electrical and other large engineering contracts which might be secured in any of the large cities in the interior. The produce was brought straight into the German concession by means of a railway siding, was treated and prepared in the go-downs, and in the majority of cases was financed by the British, French, and Russian banks, who offered more favourable terms Than the Deutsch Asiatische Bank, whose somewhat rigid policy is dictated from Berlin, thus involving delays and difficulties. The German firms were usually agents for one or other of the home lines of steamers, and so were often able to effect a further economy by obtaining agents' commissions and special rebates on the shipping of the goods. Furthermore, inasmuch as the development of plant for crushing oil-bearing beans

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and seeds has been more highly developed on the Continent than in Great Britain, and the Germans have done more to work this raw material into food products, Continental ports have become more and more the markets for Hankow produce, to the exclusion of London and other British centres. Hamburg was before the War the premier market for seeds in the world, and was bidding fair to rival London as a distributing centre for many other lines of produce. The present is a crucial time in the Hankow export trade. Owing to the War the German community has been largely depleted, and their trade is practically at a standstill. There is little doubt but that when peace is established, the German firms will re-enter the market, and the competition will be as fierce as ever. The time is most opportune, however, for British firms to make a bold bid for the trade, and there would appear to be a great opportunity for powerful houses with capital to enter the business on a large scale, and conduct it on broad, scientific and modern lines. The business is one that must be handled by an expert inspector with every facility in the way of plant for cleaning, refining, etc., and large warehouse accommodation, together with an experienced Chinese staff. One of the principle difficulties which will experienced is the shortage of British inspectors, possessing the requisite knowledge of the goods they have to handle. The bulk of the Hankow exports are now examined and passed by Germans, Swiss, and other Continentals, who are trained not only in the technical knowledge of the produce, but also in the art of dealing with Chinese brokers and merchants. Still, the difficulties are not insuperable, and it is to be hoped that British firms will avail themselves of this opportunity, and that the merchants here in London and other centres in this country may find increased markets for the consumption of Chinese produce, not only in the interests of the produce trade, but also as a stimulus to the export of British manufactures.

Let us now turn to what, in my opinion, is the most important question of all, and that is the commercial penetration of the interior beyond the limits of Treaty Ports by trained Chinese-speaking Europeans, working

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