CO129-452 - Others & Individuals - 1918 — Page 44

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Dear Sir,

42

January 30th 1918

C

BS 1980

9133

REC REG 21 FEB 181

I have this morning seen the following taken from a

report by Consul General George E. Anderson, Hongkong, which

may be of interest to you :-

"Considerable significance is attached by Shipping

people in Hongkong to the announcement of the Pacific

.

Mail Steamship Co., the Chief American Shipping interest

in the Pacific and the Far East that its headquarters

for China and the Philippines are henceforth to be at

Manila instead of at Hongkong where they have been since

the inception of the Company over 60 years ago. The Change

4 wh

has not been expected, for with the establishment of a new

direct service between the Pacific coast and India by way

of Manila a considerable portion of the Company's Fleet

coming to the Far East is not to touch at Hongkong at all,

either going or coming. It has generally been understood,

too, that the Company has found it to its advantage to

maintain its chief interests in American territory.

There

has long been under consideration a plan to establish a

fast and adequate through service between the Philippines

and the United States, with a system of "feeder lines"

running from Manila to various parts of the Far East.