CO129-470 - Public Offices - 1921 — Page 497

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Mr. Mounsey (Tien-tsin) said :--

It might interest the conference if I tell them that the other day before we held our annual meeting in Tien-tsin we were notified that Major Nathan, who is the General Manager of the Kailan Mining Administration, had expressed willing ness to approach the postal authorities in London with regard to the grave irregu- larities in the arrival of mail if the Tien-tsin Chamber desired him to do so.

We accordingly sent him a cable and took advantage of his kind offer and asked if he would see what he could do. We received a report from him to the effect that he had seen the Postal authorities, who had expressed great regret at the irregularity and were intending to do all they could to improve matters. They were unable to hold out any hopes that the time would be reduced very much though they hoped to be able to improve the matter of irregularity."

MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS.

Policy of British Merchants in China.

It was unanimously agreed :-

That this Association, being in the main composed of merchants, many of whom, however, are sole agents for some of the biggest manufacturers in Great Britain, desires to place on record its anxiety to co-operate in the fullest practic- able way with manufacturers in the advancement of the Empire's commercia! and manufacturing interests."

En moving this resolution on behalf of the Shanghai Chamber, Mr. J. S. S. Cooper (Arnhold Bros. and Co. (Limited)) said :-

The fact that we are gathered together in this conference is proof enough of our interest in British trade, and this motion indicates one way--and, I venture to say, an important way in which British trade may be advanced,

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There are several doors by which a manufacturer may enter the China market by sales to exporters in Great Britain, by establishing singly or with others his own organisation in China, or by allying himself with one of the local merchant firms. Although I hold sufficiently pronounced views as to the relative merits and effectiveness of these various methods, this is neither the place nor the time to give them expression but whatever opinions each one of us may cherish, I am persuaded all will concede that manufacturers have much to gain from the co-operation of the merchants, and that merchants are in no less need of the hearty support of the manufacturers.

"It may be, in those distant-seeming days when war had not yet caused a revival of patriotic feeling, that British merchants and British manufacturers were not sufficiently in harmony. Since those days a great change has taken place in the spirit of British trade in China-a change for which the various British Chambers of Commerce can take no small share of credit. The most casual acquaintance with the work of any of the Chambers will be enough to demonstrate how far they have carried us from the old environment of indifference, of individualism-even of jealousy. It is very largely due to them and the Association that we owe the new spirit of solidarity and co-operation.

"Surely, it is not too much to hope that this spirit will bind closer the relation- ships between the British manufacturers and the British merchant. The interests of the two are so closely bound together as to be almost indistinguishable. Each is equally concerned in supplying the best and in building up the confidence of the Chinese clients. Each is equally interested to secure a maximum share of China's imports for British trade and to present a strong, if friendly, competition to suppliers of other nationalities.

"All that seems to be necessary is that each party should recognise the true functions of the other-especially that merchants should concede to the manufac- turer the right to know for what his products are suited, and that the manufacturer should recognise the merchant's special knowledge of the pitfalls and peculiarities

of the China market.

"It is, unfortunately, true that nothing is easier than criticism, and the merchant is the traditional butt of venerable jibes. Recently, too, the thoughtless

use of the word profiteering has caused the association of a certain measure of odium with the most merited profits. And yet even the merchant is worthy of his hire. He fills a definite place in the social mechanism, and renders definite services to both seller and buyer. It is difficult to see just how the China market could originally have been exploited without his mediation. The fact that there now may be some manufacturers, like Kipling's cat. able to walk by themselves, does not, by any means, imply that the day of the merchant is past, or that the mercantile com- munity in China will not always be in a position to be of practical value to the industrial community in Britain.

The wording of the motion has tempted me to speak as a representative of a body mainly composed of merchants. But manufacturers, though in a minority at present. form no inconsiderable part of the membership of the Chambers. I am sure speak for all in saying that I hope that they will develop a membership ever increasing both in numbers and in importance. It is to be hoped that each Chamber will do everything in its power to encourage merchants to become members and that all British manufacturers represented in China will join at least one of the Chambers. They will find a ready welcome, an open ballot, and the fullest oppor- tunity to make themselves heard in our councils.

At present trade in China is at the ebb. The flood will follow just as surely as time and tide. Let us use the slack water interval to establish connections and to arrive at a better mutual understanding. Then, when the tide has turned, and when perhaps that trade destroying monster the fluctuation clause has been laid to rest, manufacturer and merchant will start together on the voyage that leads to fortune."

In supporting the resolution on behalf of the Hankow Chamber, Mr. C. A. Fraser (Messrs..Findlay, Richardson and Co.) said: It has always been a question of importance and debate as to the best methods whereby British manufacturers can There are market their wares in China, and I suppose it will always remain so. many pros and cons, but one thing is certain, that those who elect to appoint agents and sell to the well-known British firms in China fall heir by the fact of the appoint- ment to many things, i.e., experience which may run to scores of years, selling organisations, the result of much labour and thought. and the use of long names which are household names in many directions, and a guarantee of quality to thousands who might never have heard of the manufacturer's name-famous though it may

be in more enlightened trading centres.

But whether British manufacturers deal direct or through British merchants in China the trade in question is British and as such has the right to have, must have, and does have, the fullest backing of my Chamber. We are not a close corporation Before closing, for any section of trade, nor have we, I am sure, any desire to be so.

I would like to voice one request to the British manufacturers and that is let the agents, if you appoint them, be British.

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We have had the experience of the German who being agent for a British manufactured article has used that appointment to obtain advice and assistance from British Government officials and British organisations, not, gentlemen, as I need hardly assure you, always for the purpose of pushing that article nor for the further. ing of British trade, but for the furthering of his own ends which were usually diametrically opposed to the good of our Empire and the increase of its trading."

Mr. E. F. Crowe, His Majesty's Commercial Counsellor of Embassy, Tokyo, expressed the view that the manufacturer could, ordinarily speaking, not have any- body better than the merchant, who had been out here several years, to look after his interests. He himself had advised people to apply to old-established British firms in China or Japan when they were establishing agencies. If a manufacturer had some special article it might suit him to send out an expert who would be attached to the office of that firm, but the British merchant had looked after the interests of the British manufacturer and he thought the British manufacturer could trust the merchant to go on doing this.

Speaking on a subject discussed at a later stage of the conference, railway standardisation. Mr. T. R. Johnson, Railway Adviser to the Chinese Government during the past year, said in part :—

"I have only been in China about forty-nine weeks but I have been here long enough to understand that there are great problems in connection with finance which no direct representative of British firms who was here for a comparatively short time could deal with. The two things are necessarily closely associated. But at the same time they can be dealt with apart.

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