THE unanimity with which the Chamber of Commerce adopted the resolutions regarding the proposed Custom for Bonded Warehouses at this port should obtain the energetic support of the Ministers at Peking for the representations which will be forwarded to them. The meeting was a fairly mumerous one for Shanghai, where it is always difficult to bring a large number of merchants together, especially during business hours, and we understand that several members were prevented from being present by indisposition and other circumstances. Beyond two enquiries for some information, the proceedings were confined to the opening speech of the chairman and the speeches of the proposers and seconders of the resolutions which were adopted. It is mentioned in our report of the proceedings, that one member of the amber did not vote on either resolution, and for the benefit of readers at a distance and lest it should be supposed by them that there was even a latent opposition to the course that was taken, we explain that the member in question is now in the employment of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, and naturally, he took ino part im what was done." In his, speech on moving the chief resolution Mr. Macgregor went over a good part (of the same arguments which we used when lately discussing the manner in which the Chinese Government. propose to establish Bonded warehouses. We need not therefore recapitulate them now. The proposal to establish a monopoly in the hands of the Chinese steam ship company has the disapproval of, we believe, every foreign merchant in Shanghai, is fraught with danger to the best interests of commerce, and if persisted in must prove injurious to the port and therefore to the Chinese revenue. It is not likely, however, that the authorities: in Peking will perceive this last point for the present, and, even if they do, the establishment ofa monopoly by which the solitary Chinese enterprise of any importance is intended to be benefited, and by which the foreigner will probably be injured, will have too great attractions for them to abandon the scheme. We believe that the soundest foreign advisers of the Tsungli Yamen have all along endeavoured to dissuade it from taking this step, while approving the adoption of the long contemplated scheme of Bonded warehouses. 'I'he Yamen has, under the influence of the impracticable obstinacy which is always powerful in its counsels, rejected this advice, and we can only hope that thecombinedintiuence, or, ifthat does not exist, the reasoning and representations of the foreign Ministers will prevail, to have the bonding of goods made general, as expressed in the first resolution passed by the Chamber of Commerce. As we said before, the German Minister should lend his influence in support of his colleagues in Peking for it can be anything but grateful to him to see the concession which he obtained seven years ago in favour of greater freedom in trade at this port, not only mutilated but sought to be turned into one of those monopolies which sensible governments and nations have abandoned as detrimental to their interests. 'There has lately been what. we may term a: competition among the Foreign Ministers at Peking. to defer even to acts on the part of the Chinese authorities which are distinctly contrary to treaty—as witness what' has been done in Formosa,—in the hope, weunderstand, that when the day of raining railway and other contracts comes, the manufacturers and merchants of their respective nations may benefit by the complacency of their representatives. We believe that no policy could be more mistaken, and the manner in which the French obtained contracts at Port Arthur and other places, just after the termination of hostilities, goes far to prove this. But whether the extreme deference which the foreign Powers have been and are paying to the Tsung-li Yamen results in' future advantages to syndicates or firms or does not, the interests of the general commerce of foreigners should not be neglected in the meantime, as has been the case.
The amount of warehouse accommodation at this port was brought before the meeting as bearing on the question under consideration. In seconding the first resolution Mr. A. G. Wood spoke dif-fervently to what he was reported by us tohave said. What he said was, that the wharf and storage accommodation here is only equal fo the requirements of trade, and that any bonding of a particular section would be a mischievous interference with trade and would defeat the object which the Imperial Government had in view. The intention of the Chinese authorities is understood to be to bond twelve warehouses, but this accommodation will be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.