CO129-464 - Public Offices - 1920 — Page 553

opy.

Shanghai No. 58 (2056/20) March 26th, 1920.

541

Sir:-

On February 11th, Mr. W. B. Kennett, a British Director of the British American Tobacco Company (China) Limited, who was then in Peking, communicated to Sir John Jorden the gist

of a message which he had sent to his London Board in connec-

tion with the China Companies Order in Council of 1919. He

suggested that the Company should appeal to His Majesty's

Government for the promulgation of a supplementary Order

in Council, authorising the issue by His Majesty's Minister

of licences for non-British managers of China Companies, in

cases where real hardship or practical disabilities would

ensue from the strict enforcement of the new Amending Order.

A precedent for the procedure suggested was quoted in

Article 14 of the China Company Order in Council of 1915.

Sir John Jordan was disposed to consider the suggestion,

as providing a solution for difficulties which have already arisen, and which may arise in the future, in finding suit-

eble British managers for Companies, and more especially for Companies subsidiary to big manufacturing or distributing Companies, the nature of whose business requires special or technical knowledge. As an instance may be quoted the Lopato Tobacco Factory in Manchuria, which was taken over from Mr. Lopato and the success of which is held by the parent Company to be largely dependent on his Russian connec- tion. The British American Tobacco Company is indeed likely to be the Company most affected for the present by the new Order and; although Sir John Jordan held that its General Manager in China, and the control of its policy, must in future be undisputably British, he recognised the practical

advantages