CO129-557-2 British Empire and China Trade Fair 4-3-1936 - 24-6-1936 — Page 17

to

C

No.2882/1933.

SECRET & PERSONAL.

AIR MAIL.

!

Matte

GOVERNMENT HOUSE;

HONG KONG,

13th May, 1936.

17

دارم

Copy to Six E. From

Dear Sir John Maffey,

In an open despatch I am reporting by this mail the present position in regard to the proposed British Empire and China Trade Fair, and I have described the attitude of local

It has been mercantile circles towards it as one of antipathy.

brought to my notice, very confidentially of course, that this feeling may be largely due to suspicions of crooked dealing on the part of Mrs. Thompson's Advertising and Publicity Bureau Ltd. I am told that a European employee, still in Hong Kong, threw up his job with the firm rather than have his name associated with certain of its transactions, and I have before me a list of eight alleged cases in which the firm based its charge and its commission for newspaper insertions on fictitious rates much above those actually charged by the newspapers concerned. Similarly there are three allegations relating to advertisements on hoardings, in two of which the advertisements charged for are said to have been non-existent while in the third $40 a month plus 15% service fee is stated to have been billed for a free site. The source from which this information has reached me is so dependable as to have caused me very serious concern, and it has occurred to me that it might be possible for some one in the Colonial Office who knows Sir Malcolm Robertson to let him know unofficially that all is not well with the local reputation of Mrs.

Thompson's company.

Yours sincerely,

Caldeco

Sir John Maffey, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O. etc.

Colonial Office,