FO371-23516 — Page 230

Page 230

Page 230

Page 230

3.

277

complicated when a representative of the Trading Department of

the Central Trust informed the Commercial Secretary in Hongkong

that that Department (the China National Tea Corporation having

been financed by the Banking Department) was itself anxious to

explore the possibilities of exporting direct to importers in

the United Kingdom a variety of China produce including tea.

The fact that, although the Central Government had decreed

on the 2nd July that all exports (except tea, wood-oil, bristles

and minerals) were free from control, the Assistant General

Manager of the Central Trust of China wrote to the Commercial

Secretary in Hongkong on the 7th July stating that the Trust

had been authorised to control the export of goatskins, gallnuts,

rhubarb, ramie, and hog casings, is an example of the general

lack of co-ordination which prevails as between the various

departments.

In or about April 1939 what had hitherto been known as the

Barter Department of the Central Trust, of which the titular

head was David Kung (the young and inexperienced son of the

Minister of Finance), was transformed into the Trading Department

and began to operate apparently in competition with the already

existing Foreign Trade Commission of the Ministry of Finance.

Both the Trading Department and the Foreign Trade Commission con-

tinue to operate, and their spheres of operations both as regards

goods allocated under barter agreements and as regards the open

market are ill-defined. It is reliably reported that, as a result

of representations made direct to the Generalissimo, the Minister

of Finance sent a small commission to Hongkong at the end of June

to investigate the alleged inefficiency and malpractices of the

Foreign Trade Commission. It is perhaps possible that the find-

ings of this commission may lead to the elimination of the Foreign

Trade Commission, which is redundant and which has probably only

continued in existence so long because the Minister of Finance

has been reluctant to offend Mr. K.P. Ch'en by whom it was

instituted some eighteen months ago.

Page 230

Page 230Page 231