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experts for pioneering purposes, the free distribution of well-drawn up catalogues and advertising matter, and a much more generous scale of sampling than has been carried out in the past. On the other hand, manu- facturers have the right to expect that the merchants, on their side, will adopt the best available methods for distributing and marketing British goods, and that every effort will be made to keep our industrialists posted with the changing needs of the Chinese consumers. By such joint efforts to a common end shall we able to secure our fair share of the great market of the future.
Secondly, greater financial facilities will be required from our banks and finance houses for the purpose of financing deferred payments on large Chinese Govern- ment and private contracts for plant, machinery and other supplies. Such contracts almost always entail extended facilities for a certain portion of the payment, and British financiers in the past have not looked kindly on such business unless collateral security were offered. Our German rivals have usually been able to arrange these cases through the medium of the large manu- facturer in Europe-such houses as Messrs. Krupp, the A.E.G. and Siemens-Schuckert being enormous concerns with the closest connections in German finance circles. In this country, however, there is much greater difficulty. The majority of our manufacturers utilise the whole of their resources in the organisation and running of their own works, and it is too much to expect them to have to finance their clients in addition, nor is such a method an economical one. An argument frequently adduced by our banks is that, inasmuch as they are handling the money of their clients and not of their shareholders, they are restricted in their choice of securities. While
this is a very sound attitude, it unfortunately does not help us in the case in point. It is hoped that British banks may see their way to modify their attitude with regard to these contracts in the best interests of our trade and industry, or, failing this, that it may be possible for other financial enterprise to step into the breach, either in the form of private financial trusts or possibly of an industrial bank. I merely put forward these types of enterprise as a suggestion for your earnest consideration.
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Thirdly, it will be found necessary, as China opens up, for our mercantile assistants and travellers to secure a wider knowledge of the country and its people, their language, traits of character, business methods, and mode of life. There is at present a great shortage of young Englishmen who possess the requisite know- ledge to travel on business in the interior, and this scarcity will become more acute as the trade extends. The great distributing organisations in China are now making it obligatory for their staffs to speak Chinese, and the time is coming when the British merchants will find it necessary to do the same. Our competitors have stolen a march on us in this respect, and have combined a knowledge of Chinese with very close application to their own business. The average British assistant in Shanghai knows practically nothing of China beyond the Settlement limits, and yet this great area is his market, on whose development his very livelihood depends. It is hoped that the Eastern houses will encourage their assistants to take up courses of Chinese either at King's College or Manchester University, and that the most important groundwork thus obtained (of the value of which I can speak personal experience) may be extended by further study in China. The difficulties of colloquial Chinese have been somewhat exaggerated. It is possible for the average man with a good ear and memory to obtain quite a useful working knowledge of the spoken language with one to two hours' steady application per day for a year or so, and in two to three years he would acquire a sufficient vocabulary for ordinary business intercourse in the interior. The important point is that he should begin his course of study when young, while the memory is retentive. All that is required is a little application and a spirit of enterprise. The facilities for study now are infinitely greater than those accorded to British pioneers in the past, and when it is realised what a great field of utility is opened up, and the prospects which will lie with the alert Chinese-speaking business men in the future, I have no doubt that we shall find a ready response from our younger men if only the matter is drawn to their attention by their seniors.
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