806
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLÝ, PRESS AND
after. Consols have been down to 90, ctfn that the reports are not usually of though since the Government has taken the kind which makes it worth the while of fourpence off the income tax the quotation manufacturers to procure them. Complaints has improved.- If the new Irish Land Bill of this nature are not heard in América, the Goverment will require There a very large demand exists. In his her 2100,000,000||to buy out the land review of the world's commerce during the lords, and a fresh loan for the Transvaal is past year, the Chief of the Foreign Com- expected any week. No wonder that the merce Bureau at Washington makes some British taxpayer is crying "Halt" to the remarks on this subject which are worthy national expenditure. The reply made on the attention of the British Foreign Office. of the Government to Lord Ross- It is very well known that for years the BERY S protest was cold comfort. The United States Consuls have been supplying taxes are only high," said Lord SEL manufacturers and merchants in the States BORNE because we have reduced the with information as to almost every con- possible bases of taxation to a minimum."ceivable detail in the special requirements The wholly unanticipated reduction of of particular localities for gaining and four-pence in the income tax must be holding trade, and the Chief of the Bureau regarded as a substantial sob to CERBERUS. is able to say that "whatever may be the defects of our Consular service, it is, at least, showing itself to be generally alert and responsive to new conditions.” A very illuminating paragraph in this connection is the follow ing:-
CONSULS AND COMMERCE.
"The Consuls have been most active in
[May 4, 1903.
BRITISH TRADE IN CHINA.
COMMERCIAL TRAINING FOR CONSULAR OFFICERS.
(Specially Reported for the Hongkong Daily Press.")
At a special meeting of the London Chatiber of Commerce held in London on Tuesday, March 24th, Mr. W. Holland, ex-British Consul at Swatow, delivered an important ad dress on "British Trade and the British Consular Service in China."
East India and China section of the Chamber Mr. W. Keswick, M.P., chairman of the and chairman of the China Association, presided, and among those present were Mr. E. G. Gillespie (Deputy Chairmen of the Council), Mr. J. H. Longford (retired British Consul, Nagasaki). Lieutenant-Colonel H. Faithfull, Mr. C. Charleton, Mr. H. M. Worthington, Mr, O. H. Behrens, Mr. H. V. Tropp, Mr. C. G. Times, Mr. W. G. Frier. (Secretary Ter Brokers' Association), Mr. C. Saward, and Mr. K. B. Murray, (the Secretary of the Chamber). sending reports at frequent intervals on asid China always had been of great interest, Mr KESWICK, in introducing Mr. Holland, great variety of subjects of interest to the not only from a literary and historical point of industrial and commercial world, and these view, but also in connection with its trade, and have been printed promptly in the daily he was quite sure that Mr. Holland, who advance sheets, which, anticipating the had spent about 30 years in the country, would monthly Consular reports, have rendered a
give an address which would not only be useful service of current intelligence which is
but of great interest in every respect. steadily winuing popular recognition. A most gratifying evidence of the increasing there are now five classes-annual, quarter- value of the Consular reports, of which ly, monthly, special, and daily-is found in
||** || (Daily Press, 1st May.) MR. W. HOLLAND, the ex-British Consul at Swatow, in the address he gave a month ago at a special meeting of the London Chamber of Commerce, made the observa- tion that as a rule Ccusule know very little about commercial ways and requirements. Mr. HOLLAND spoke from an experience of thirty years in China and is well qualified to pronounce an opinion
He spoke moreover to a body which was alreadly convinced of the fact for in the course of some correspondence which the East India and China Trade Section of the Chamber has recently bad with the Foreign the widespread demand for them on the presumptuons on my part to ask a body of
Office, the importance of having in the Consular Service men who have some know ledge and experience in commerce has been pressed upon the attention of Lord LANS- DOWNE, particularly in its bearing upon the trade with China. But Lord LANSDOWNE is apparently unable to see any necessity for complaint on this score. The Committee respectfully suggested that
CL care should be taken to select men with a knowledge of trade," as they believed that by so doing the commercial interests of Great Britain and China would be much helped and extended, but the reply of the Foreign Office was a reminder that members of His Majesty's Consular Service in China are from the time of their entry into that service as student interpreters trained in the country and afforded special appor- tunities for acquiring knowledge of all questions connected with the trade of “China.” Lord LANSDOWNE must have jungined that he was writing to men entirely ignorant of the qualifications of Consuls rather than to a body composed of merchants of special experience and sound knowledge of the need for their suggestion. The Consuls themselves ap- preciate the need. In the French Consular service the embryo Consul has to pass a year at one of the great Chambers of Commerce in the country, where he is able to acquire a great deal of practical business experience but in the British service we have it on the authority of a Consul of considerable experience that nothing is done to reach them their com mercial duties and what knowledge of these they possess they have to pick up in a hiphazard sort of way. Consequently the value of their commercial reports to the manufacturers atome must suffer by comparison with those sent by Consuls in the service of the other is ions who make a commercial training a condition of their appointment
Not infrequently is complaint made in mal circles at
ome of the meagreness of the demand for Consular reports, but this is only another way of stating
part of colleges and schools as reference books in special courses of commercial instruction. This demand has grown up within the past few years, and, in itself, is symptomatic of the spread of popular in- Lerest in foreign trade."
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published reports, the Consuls, of late, by It is further mentioned that in addition to
ireans of correspondence conducted under the supervision of the Department of State to trade bodies and business firms, and in have supplied “a great mass of information many cases have voluntarily exerted them selves in other ways to promote com- mercial expansion." Their efforts, it is stated, frequently elicit warm commenda- tion in letters to the Department from the trade interests thus benefited. We need hardly remark that this goes far, to explain the causes for the steady and substantial increase of America's exports, especially to this part of the world. Finally, the Chief of the Bureau expresses the opinion that
"with judicious improve "ments in the Consular organisation, it may readily be seen that the service might be "made an unrivaled anxiliary of that con- "certed and intelligently organised more "ment for efficient export methods which promises soon to be an absolute prerequisite to further extension of our foreign trade.” In the British Foreign Office there appears to be a rooted conviction that arrangements which were deemed adinirable twenty years ago equally answer the requirements of to-day.
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Some sixty of his old friends gave a farewell dinner at the Sharghai Club to Mr. Alexander to England. Mr. R. W. Little was in the chair, McLeod, who is leaving Shanghai for a trip the croupiers being Mr. R. W. M. Campbell, Mr. W. J. Clarke, and Mr. R. Inglis. The town band played during and after dinner. The health of Mr. McLeod, proposed by the Chair- man, was drank with enthusiasm, and after Mr. Mo. eod had responded in a very interesting speech, filled with reminiscences of his 39 years in China, a mumber of songs, concluding with Aull Lang Syne," made the evening pass very pleasantly.
Mr. HOLLAND, who was enthusiastically received, said:-It is with considerable diffidence that I rise to address this meeting to-day, as I cannot help thinking of Pope's well known line about "fools rushing in where angels.
fear to tread," and realising that it is perhaps will therefore ask the indulgence of this meeting experts to come and listen to an amateur. I if I do not appear to have anything very new or startling to say, but it seems to me that as in the case of Lord Beresford and the Navy there is nothing like pegging away with your subject in the hope of compelling attention.
very well fail to result in some knowledge of The pursuits of a lifetime cannot but have a powerful influence on one's mind nor can they one's subject, and after thirty years' experience of hina I am convinced that it is a country of Britishers who were the pioneers in the country magnificent possibilities, and that it behoves us to be up and doing before we see the fruite of
our labour snatched from us by other countries advantage of our energy in the past and of our who have no scruples about reaping the
su ineness in the present. The total foreign trade of China for 1901 was close cn 63 millions sterling, but it must be borne in mind that any such reckoning of figures for China is mislead ing on account of the vagaries of exchange. For purposes of comparison with former vears, Mr.Jamieson, our Commercial Attaché in China, we cannot do better than follow the example of
who takes the year 1896 for comparison, that being the year in which commerce recovered from the shook dealt it by the war with Japar Now in 1896 the Haiwan tael, in which Chinese trade returns are always reckoned, was worth 3/4, while in 1901 it had derpped to 2/111. Therefore if we judge not by the sterling value, trade of 1901 would compute to nearer 70 than but by the faal value as we ought to do, the
good increase seeing that the troubles of 1900 63 millious, that of 1896 being 54 millions, a very intervened. If we take the total as 63 millions, British trade claimed 42 millions or about 66 per cent. This may sound fairly satisfactory. at
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frst, but the satisfaction will be son.ewhat tempered by the reflection that we had almost the whole of the trade to ourselves in former. years, and even in 1896, our year of comparison, the British share was 72 per cent, showing that judging by the energy of our chief competitors, we have lost 6 per cent, in five years. And the United States, Germany, and Japan, we shall continue to lose year by year, unl ss some decided steps are taken to retrieve our position, Now a trade of 42 millions is well worth serious attention even if it stopped at t at. But when as is the case in China, the trade is capable of enormous expansion, it surely behoves, all con- cerned, both official and mercantile, to give the subject the attention it deserves. – Dr. Wells Williams in his Middle Kingdom gives the
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