The annual general meeting of the members of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce was held on Monday afternoon at the office of the Chamber, Kiukiang Road. Mr. A. P. MacEwen (Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Ca.) presided, and there were present, Messrs. J. Chapsal (Messageries H Siantines Cie.), E. B. Skottowe (Chartered Bank of India), J. H.' McMichael (Frazar &Co.), C. J. Dudgeon (Ibert & Ca.), D. M. Moses (D. Sassoon, Sons & Ca.), 'W. D. Little (Win. Little & Ca.), Committee, H. R. Hear (Alfred, Dent & Ca.), W. S. Bremner (Bank of China and Japan), E. A. Hewett (P. GO. S. N. Ca.), S. Komura (Mts isba), W. J. Tyack (Barlow & Ca.), C. M. Dyce (Dyce & Ca.), S. A. Levy (E. D. Sassoon & Ca.), J. Thorburn (ational Bank of China), and Douglas Jones (Cnion Insurance Society of Canton).
The Chairman, in moving the adoption the report and accounts said—Gentlemen, the report of the Committee has }been in your hands now for some days past and you will observe that during the year a good deal of work has been done. It is hardly necessary for me to go seriatim through each subject touched upon in the report, but there are one or two matters of interest bearing upon the Aesirable to say a few words. 1 allude general trade of the port upon which it is
more particularly to bonded warehouses, likin, and transit passes, as bearing on the local'production of yarns, and the Woosung Bar, and River Conservancy Board. As regards the survey of the Woosung Bar, it is satisfactory that arrangements have at last been concluded to have this much needed work done by a competent surveyor, and I have no doubt that if practicable scheme for the removal of this great obstruction is put before the Chi-hose government, some means will be hit upon to have the work carried out. Transit passes: although we have not quite succeeded in getting the Tsungli amen to authorise the issue of these 2 the Commissioner of Customs instead of the Taotai, in order to avoid delay, I have every reason to believe that we shall obtain this privilege shortly and the Committee will not allow the matter to drop. The present position a" regards duties on the productions of the local cotton mills is. The existing Chinese-owned mills have {the right to manufacture and sell locally free of duty; if exported, the yarns pay the of ordinary Customs duty of H. is. 2.10 per bale. We claim that Chinese-owned mills shall not have any advantage over us in the matter of taxation, and we also claim that the full benefit of the transit pass system shall be extended to the productions of the foreign mills. As regards British-owned mills the whole question, however, is before the British Minister, and a satisfactory; solution may be confidently looked for. Bonded warehouses were first instituted in 1887 on the demand of foreign merchants, but although the Chinese authorities conceded the privilege, they took care to confer it upon the China Merchants' S. N. protested through this Chamber, and the Ca.. as a monopoly. Foreign -merchants
question was taken up by the Diplomatic at Peking, with the result that the institution of the system was declared to be 'a tentative measure, and that claims for its {found to be of general a fe trade. extension would te considered if it were howerer, that bonding has been eight years of its working have not,
availed of to any extent, nor has there been any demand during that period for extended means of using it. © The Customs statistics show that from the year 1888 to 1894 inclusive, ling was very little availed of, and taking two principal items of the import trade-the result' was that of Grey Shirtings 610,137 making in all a total of 2,677,837 pieces, being an average of only a fraction during the seven years of one year's business in those articles. It would therefore appear that bonding as it at present exists in Shanghai is not wanted by importers, and I have only to ask the members present if they think the privilege would be availed of to a greater extent, if bonding were allowed at all the public' wharves. The question has been fore the Committee of this Chamber without eliciting any decided expression of opinion, and it is now for the members to say whether they think it worth while agitating for a change of the existing system of working it. The numerous collisions that have recently taken place in the neighbourhood of the Wovsung Bar, one resulting in a deplorable loss' of life, show the absolute i that strict regulations for the n: the bar should be recognised by vessels of all natio ities. As matters stand at present regulations drawn upby the Customs authorities do exist, which they have no power to enforce. I feel certain that your incoming Committee will give this import ant matter all the consideration it deserves. The plan adopted of holding regular monthly meetings of the Committee and publishing anything of importance to the commerce of the port, has worked well and trust will be continued. On behalf of the Committee I have to thank the Consular Body for the prompt manner in which all our communications have been dealt with, and our special thanks are due to Dr. Stuebel, the Senior Consul, for the courtesy he has at all times extended to us. In conclusion I must say that we are indebted to our Secretary, Mr. Drummond Hay, for the very active and intelligent manner in which Te has carried out his duties as Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce during the past year, when the work has been very much heavier than usual, I shall be pleased to give any further information to members that I can, should they desire it.
Mr. E. A. Hewett—There are certain questions you have referred to in your speech, on which I should like to -be allowed to make a few remarks, I mean to those more particularly relating to the shipping interest. Some of those now here were present on a recent occasion when one of our Consuls stated that although the foreign officials were only too anxious to do all in their power to help on trade with this country, it remained with those actually engaged in mercantile pursuits to state what they wanted and see that they got it. These remarks although addressed to a gathering of but one nationality, with equal truth apply to all engaged in trade with China, We have always been given to understand that constant dropping wears away a stone. It perhaps because there is so little in the composition of the Chinese Government, as a body, to make the simile applicable that our repeated representations to thera as to our wants have up to the present met with such a modicum of success. We have, unfortunately, only too good cause for knowing that very little is to be expected from the authorities in Peking, but it is only by proclaiming what we require, and going on insisting upon it year after year, that we can hope in the end to gain our point. This necessity must be my excuse for again referring to such a well-worn topic as the state of this river. It is true that thanks to the efforts of our Committee, and their immediate predecessors, we have at last arrived at such a point that we hope fora second Gine carveyed bya competent within the b year to have the river
engineer, and that armed with his report we may be able, through the representations our respective Governments, to bring such arguments to bear upon the Chinese
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.