To the Editor of the "Norr-Caima Dany News."
Sin—The spatby displayed Shanghai rubber shareholders is indeed 'a wonderfal and incomprehensible thing Here we have the remarkable phenomenon of a people who nine months ago were falling over one another in their eszerness to spend their all, and in many cases, more than their the purchase of rubber.
Brio, yet to-d as lifting " foger in their own aid, What is the reason for thie calm Is it that these poor deluded folk still live in the fool's paradise created for them by the gilded words of the company promoter? Is it that, as apparently was the case with the honest but timorous gentlemen who lent their advice, experience and approval but not their names to the Rabber Committee lately, they fear to incor the displeasure of their "friends" the I: cal rabber magnates? Or their attitude of mind that of the apathy of despair T have to admit that whilst awaiting the results of the Rubber Committee's deliberations with eager anxiety, I did 0 also with scepticism, for it seemed to me impossible that out of the complexity of the situation here in Shanghai anything practicable in the shape of unity and strength could be evolved. Bat the Committee's rep rt has set all doubts at rest. Therein is set forth scheme, splendid in its simplicity, whereby, whilst each and every company would retain its own individuality, its own capital and its own profits, the whole of the participating companies would be worked under one directorate, elected by the shareholders themselves, in Shanghai; would be represented by their own officials at their own offices in the Straits and London, and would attain, ander the title of "The Shanghai Rabber Association, Ld," or some such name, a dignity and " world-power such as no isolated Company, no matter where or how happily situated, could possibly acquire. This scheme provides means whereby the trae value of each and every Estate could be at-certained at any moment. It shows how large sume of money can be saved annually by each Company, and therefore proportionately by each shareholder, in Directors' fees, Office expenses, Agency commissions, the squeezes of Estate managers and bangers on; best of all, it gives to the shareholders the power whereby they can shake themselves free from the clatches of Promoter-Director-Agent trinity, whi is in some cases lining its pockets and waxing fat at their expense,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.