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July 29, 1905.)
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. hearted finance could not in the natural | It seems to us that whether the secretary of
It had an course of events run on for ever.
a public company is permitted to devote unusually short course in Russia. Large part of his time and energy to other business profits were, indeed, made on paper; shares a matter solely for his employers to The shareholders are the actual rose to high premiums, and some stocks decide. divided sixty per cent as profit. On October 31, 1899, M. DE WITTE declared Russia's finances to be in a brilliant position, sounder, he said, than those of France or England! In 1900 the house of cards collapsed; in October “ panic reigned at the St. Petersburg bourse." The life blood of this huge edifice had been money bor- rowed from France in a moment of temporary trustfulness. Europe lost some ninety millions sterling in this "sieve of the Danaids."
M. DE WITTE had, however, been successful in his way: he had found the road to the pockets of Europe. Year by year the indebtedness of Russia mounted up-bow bigh in the multiplicity of published statistics, each report differing by millions from its neighbour, we are unable to discover. This Las been the charm of his finance; it added to vulgar 1noney borrowing the romance of the turf. Russia's delit, according to the most moderate estimates, exceeds 750 millions sterling some
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on equally good premises place it at 1,400 millions sterling. Now it is very evident that this supposed facility of M. DE WITTE is really the quality which has sent him to Washington in the place of Count MOURATIEFF. Japan has announced plainly that she must have an indemnity and Europe, with some very questionable precedents staring her in the face, has been unable to blink the propriety of the claim. Since M. DE WITTE's eclipse at the Russian Exchequer, no successor has exhibited the same art in charming the nimble rubles. Rumour places the amount likely to be requested at some 100 millions sterling, and, although this is but a flea-bite to the 1,400 millions already standing at the wrong side, Russia's good financiering friends
poor dear look foolish, and wonder what “ Russia will so. Evidently the appointment is but the last resource of a ruler who has brought his country to the very brink of destruction, and now stands irresolute look ing into the abyss. In the days of his pros- perity none stood higher in the councils of lis fickle master than M. DE WITTE; but he had attempted the impossible in his aerial fight and, like BELISARIUS, he had discovered the meaning of a sovereign's dis- favour, and been relegated to scullion's work. So in the old times was BELISARIUS treated by an Autocrat. So, too, was he recalled in the hour of sorest need to save Rome; but the same causes were at work to defeat bis efforts as are now working the fall of Russia; and the Eternal City became the appauage of the redoubtable TOTILA. The appointment of M. DE WITTE is really a council of despair, not a sign of return- ing common sense.
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everything be left to them, the raison d'etre-
The manager gone. of the Directorate is could easily declare the dividend and pass the vote of thanks: the Directorate, in addition to those tasks, is expected to manage the manager. We have said employers, and if their representatives on the Directorate do not agree with them, they that Mr. OSBORNE was setting a good have it in their power gradually to remove example to local directors, and we have said these, and to elect others who will act more that the man with too many irons in the amenably to their wishes. It often happens fire cannot make a good director. The that by permitting a useful man to engage inconsistency is more apparent than real. in other occupations, his services are secured The good example was in establishing the are possible for really less than their value, while by fact that useful results
when directors really direct their attention dividing them, he secures, perhaps, more than their monopolised value would have to the interests of the shareholders. He been. In such case it is obviously mutually proved our other point by deposing in advantageous to allow such an arrangement. Court that he could only spare ten minutes a day. We suppose that the hotel directors On the other hand, if an employer or cor- poration can afford to pay a sufficiently receive, with their fees, and free tiffins and large remuneration to retain exclusively the dinners, the equivalent of something like services ofan able man, and do so, it is noĥard- 380 or $90 a month, which is not such poor pay for ten minutes a day. Obviously, the ship to expect of him that he should devote all his efforts to benefiting his paymasters. temptation is for a man with the necessary The case of the Hongkong Hotel, and Mr. qualifications to undertake more of such OSBORNE's connection therewith, touches, duties than he can properly discharge. That there are cases in Hongkong of men however, a far wider area of the com-
field in Hongkong than the who occupy such an improper position mercial separate interests of the Wharf and Godown cannot be denied: but again we have to Company, or of the Hotel Company. The admit that it is the shareholders, and they questions asked in his case may well be caly, who are to blame. They grumble asked in the cases of most of the gentlemen among themselves, they write to the papers, who act as directors of public companies in but they go on electing and re-electing men this Colony. Now that there is a growing who already have too much to do. It is a distrust of local stocks, it is natural that flattering tribute to the abilities of these there should be comments on the manage-gentlemen, but it is no more fair to them ment, and queries and theories as to the than it is to the investors whose money
should be more profitably turned over. causes of visible effects. Why does a com- pany that admittedly earns over twenty per cent. pay a dividend of ten ? Why does the prosperity of one corporation hang upon another Columns could be filled with questions that are constantly being asked; and the Judge of Libel Actions would be busy if only a tithe were publishel of the things that are said when money and investments are the topics of verandab delate. One thing that is invariably said is that the number of directors is far too small in proportion to the number of companies. One man has far too many irons in the fire, and though, malgre the spirit of the adage, it is not he who suffers, the owners of the rous com- plain. We are advised not to put all our eggs in one basket; but it is possible to It go too far to the other extreme. is impossible to give so many baskets the attention they require. Guinea-pigging in its local form means that important busi- ness is being left to somebody, perhaps less capable, who has more time than the man one board meeting to who rushes from another. As Mr. OSBORNE has put it, in the Supreme Court, "auy fool can judge carrots," and it occurs to us that any fool can sit at a table for a few minutes, hold up his hand when told, and afterwards sign The ideal documents put before him. director should do a little more than that; and, curiously enough, Mr. OSBORNE has
OUR OVERWORKED DIRECTORS, gone the right way to set a good example.
(Daily Press, 26th July.) Probably there was never before in Hong- kong a legal suit, so petty and unimportant in itself, that attracted so large a share of public attention and caused so much com- ment, as the unsuccessful clain of the Hongkong Hotel Company's late chef for wrongful dismissal. Of the merits of the case proper we have nothing to say; but several important side issues seem to call imperatively for comment. The letter in our correspondence column to-day, which we have published only in response to urgent requests, suggests a discussion with a much wider bearing than its author intended.
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CHINA'S POSITION.
(Daily Press, 27th July.) However we look upon it, it is impossible not to feel a considerable amount of sympathy with China. On all sides we find her exposed to the gibes and pranks of upstart nations who seem in her eyes but creatures of a day, and everyone of these has a panacea for her supposed ills, which they are, one and all, prepared to administer without care or thought for her feelings. China is, in fact, very much in the positiou of a patient with a new disease brought to a hospital; every attendant physician has his own remedy which he is prepared to administer at any risk, and the person of all others the most interested is just the only one whose feelings meet with no regard, as if he were the denizen of another world without human feelings, or anything akin to bumau feelings. As we have said, we have our sympathies, and China shares very considerably in them. Still, the situa tion is not altogether without its ludicrous as the situation is very side; the more so much of China's own bringing about, and the complaints and lamentations which she herself is just now uttering to unsympa- thetic Powers are very much of the same nature as those ignored by herself when she had the means of refusal. The three principal
Just as he invaded the hotel pantry, when he had reason to believe it was time for somebody to see into things, so the ideal! director would visit the godown or the wharf, or peep into the mill, or pass through the shop, and use his eyes and his a report brains, instead of listening to and "minuting" it as satisfactory, as recently happened in the case of an For his vote either increased death-rate. way is the "minute" the company director makes, and he ought to have a little more reason for his acts than just something he may have heard. The answer will be offered that there are managers and other officials appointed to look into these things; but if
Powers at the moment on China's horizon are of course, America, Russia and Japan.
ree states more diverse in their ways and interests could hardly be conceived, and yet they all agree in one thing, and that is iguoring China's wishes and feelings. They are all deeply interested in her well being. In fact their whole conduct is the outcome of the most benevolent care for her best interests; the patient need really have no fear for the result; the pain undergone in the operation, they assure her, pierces each of them to the heart, but (there is always a 'but' in these considerate matters) her recovery depends entirely on her submitting herself to their directions.
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