IRRESPONSIBLE writers in the Press and all-sufficient but insufficient orators in public meetings of alli kinds, not excluding the House of Commons, are fond of assigning two causes for the failure of the British merchant to prevent the rest of the world from having any foreign export trade at all. One is the apathy, indifference, and lack of energy on the part of the British merchant himself, who, it is customary to assert without any foundation for the assertion, takes no thought as to what his foreign buyer wants, but sends the latter what he, the former thinks must be good for him; and the other is the equal apathy and indifference al] over the world of the British Consul who is too apt to regard himself as a diplomatist, quite above mixing himself i ier anything so sordid as trade. The writers and orators we have mentioned are very fond of making unfavourable comparisons of the British Consul with his American or German colleague; such comparisons as the one made tin the following extracts from a recent letter written by Mr. J. W. Whittall, President of the British Chamber of Commerce of Turkey, published in the leading London paper The great fault of our Consular system in its relation to our trade is its want of system and its inability to throw off the traditions of a past system which might have been applicable in those days, but which to-day is an absurd anachronism.
Evidently what is recognised as of the first necessity in the German Consular system is that its chief official on the spot should be in constant and direct touch with all categories of German traders. Knowing as he does that in the present struggle for existence German traders cannot be constantly in attendance at their Consulate to register their complaints or embody their practical recommendations, the Consul-General makes a point of re~ gularly himself going round from office to office and discussing each question as it arises and whilst it is a Yurning question.
The German Consular official waits upon his country's trade as a commercial traveller waits upon his buyers. The British official sits in lordly majesty in his office and expects British trade to wait upon him, the natural consequence being that he knows very little of what is going and of what he ought to do to promote British trading interests.
Another point is that the Ge-man Consul is bound by the re~uirements of the German system to furnish constant—I am told fortnightly—reports on everything gaine on in his sphere, down to trivial details. These reports are sent to the central department at Berlin, the officials of which are bound to transmit all the recommendations to the proper quar-for, whether to tha Foreign Office, or "ho rail or steamer directors. or the special manufacturers, or. in fact, any one on whom pressure could be brouglut to beer for the furtherance German trade, The German system reminds me of an army, specially disciplined, marching with scientific precision, commanded by responsible ani experienced chiefs, who know perfectly what "hey have to do and the consequences to themselves if they do not do it; whereas the British system reminds me of 2 horde of irresponsible vol-untoers, without discipline or efficient chiefs, each one coing what seemeth best in his own eyes, and often shirking what is looked upon as the drudgery of questions appertaining to trade and filthy jucre. I bare known sume of our Consuls who aped the airs of Ambassadors and regarded themselves as born only to carry out high diplomatic missions. As a general rule our Consuls seldom trouble themselves to act personally in order to secure the objects of British trade. They trust everything to their dragomans and sce through their eyes only, so that in various Consulates the action of a dragoman, who may be a foreign subject, is really more important than that of his chief.
Now in days gone by, never to return, our trade was secure because no one could produce more cheaply than we did. In those days it mattered not whether our Consular system was right or wrong. But now the case is quite different. I suppose no one will deny that, as regards the generality of articles, our opponents can produce on the same terms as ourselves: and the handicapping of a British article through any exceptional facility given to the opponents' product. such as a steamer subsidy, a reduced railway freight, early official information pressed home, the energy always displayed by our rivals in supporting the claims of their traders. ete., is often sufficient to turn the balance against the British article. I myself have Jost a trade because my for-cion opponents got an advantage of, terms given to them on Government lines. Ts it surprising if the stimulus of this highly scientific German system is snfficient to often turn the balance in favour of German trade?
T have heard it said. "Oh, the German system is a grandmotherly one. which Englishmen would not tolerate and which doctrovs individual enterprise." Grandmotherly or not, it attains its ohvects. whereas ours doos not. And as regards its aestroving individual enterprise all T can sav is that a trader who hac his bread to get by his trade will not allow himself to he restrained br any euch considerations, for he knows full well that if he doth not work with a whole heart neither shall be cat.
We do not propose to criticise Mr. Whittall's letter as far as it regards the British trade in the Levant because we know very little about that trade, except that in the prehistoric days of Lord Hammond, afore American and German competition had become serious, our Foreign Office used to excuse its indifference to British commercial interests in China by the forecast, that in a very few years the foreign trade of China would pass from British to Chinese hands as the foreign trade of the Levant had passed from British to Greek hands. But we doubt very much whether any British merchant in China would endorse Mr. Whittall, and approve the introduction here of what he calls the German system. The British merchant here, we believe, is still an advocate of the "fair field and no favour" policy, nor would he be particularly pleased to see his Consul-General, highly as he may value and respect him socially, "regularly himself going round from office to office and discussing each question as it arises," or sending fortnightly reports to the Foreign Office " on everything going on in his sphere down to trivial details." This personal interference of the Consul in the doings of his nationals has its drawbacks too, as the following true story shows; all the actors in it have been gone from Shanghai for some years, so that there is no indiscretion in telling it. A very well-informed and well-educated China-map, who had been for some years in the employ of an English firm here as translator was engaged at a much higher salary by the German Consul as a writer. He came in one day to see his former employer, who asked him how he was getting on, and, in talking about his work, the Chinaman said: "I have just been putting into Chinese a dispatch from the Consul to the Viceroy at Nanking, in which the Consul says that if the Viceroy is thinking of buying any guns, he can strongly recommend the German firm of Mes; does your Consul do that sort of business?" The German Consul was pushing German trade, and would therefore meet Mr. Whittall's approval; but what would the other German firms in Shanghai at the time who were ready to import guns have said if has had known that their sympathetic Consul was specially recommending one of their competitors The British merchant, in the Far East at any rate, is like the Chinaman in being best pierised when his officials restrict their interference with him in matters of business as much as possible, He does not want to be grandmothered, and he has a congenital horror of bureaucracy. It is therefore with some astonishment that we hear that Mr. Whittall's complaints have made such an impression on the Foreign Office that certain commercial attaches abroad have been instructed to send home lists of the British merchants in their districts and the nature and extent of the business done by them, with similar information as to the native merchants engaged in business with Great Britain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.