Shanghai, 13th October, 1897.
To the Szcretany of the Fire Tnsurance Association of Shanghai.
Dean Str,—We are in receipt of your favour dated the 12th inst. which as an answer to ours of the 11th inst. is most unsatisfactory: to say that your Committee has nothing to do with the rate charged at Soochow seems to us a quibble.
On several occasions the question of the rate on our Filature has been brought before you for reconsideration, but the result has always been the same. You have always replied that our Filature is too far from Shanghai, and now we find that for the last tivo years (or say two SHk Seasons) " Member of your Committee has been taking a similar risk at Soochow, where there is absolutely no protection whatever, at a lower rate than you charge us at Jessfield. To the most untrained mind in the matter of Fire Insurance there can be no comparison between the two risks,—one, tactically. in Shanghai, with foreigners ving on the premises, and the other 80 miles in the interior of China.
With a Fire Insuranea Association established here we naturally presumed that insurers would be treated fairly and straightforwardly, and that, when n rate was fixed for one risk, a lower rate would not be taken for an inferior one.
Tu our opinion if the ra'e at Soochow be, as we are informed, 2% net, then our Filature should be taken at certainly not more than s';—10%, the Shanghai rate, and, we think, we are entitled to claim from you 1.—That we be refunded the difference between the Shanghai rate and the rate we have paid, for the last two years.
2.—That, in future, the rate on our Filature at Jessticld be exactly the same as on any other Filature in Shanghai.
Kindly circulate this among the Members of your Committee at once, and let us have a reply as soon as possible.
We are, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, (Signed) Tue Six Coy Fuature Ca., Dyce & Ca., Agents.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.