The position of the foreign pub-
them- Chin: lis! and booksellers and of the copier of the foreign model is well illustrated by s case heard by the Mixed Court in April, 1911, the plaintiffs being Messrs. Ginn Ca., an American firm, and the defendants the Commercial Press Ao. of Shanghai, the largest and most enterprising publishing house in China, and probably in the whole East. The book then in question was 8 volume called "A General History for Colleges and High Schools," copied word for word by the defendant firm, with the same mapo and illustrations, the same number of pages, and the same number of words on each page, but with of course an appreciable diftncence k in price. gistration of Trade Marks (the Customs), but this proved to be useless ity. During the bearing of the case, it was said on behalf of the defendants that they had branches in eighteen or twenty provines of China, supplied nearly all the schools with books, and had besa commended by the Board of Education for their work. This shows clearly the importance attaching to any infringement of copyright, and the extent of financial interests affected.
No Liability Admitted, It was argued for the defendants that considerations of public welfare compelled them to issue educational books in the cheapest possible form, and one gathers that the publishers looked for sympathetic attitude on the part of the English-speaking countries. Much more important was the contention that there was nothing in international copyright to prevent their publishing books in the manner complained of, nor anything in Chinese law which made them liable for so doing.
This view has apparently been adhered to, and the publication of books originally produced in England and America goes on without any attempt at concealment. Several. foreign publishing houses are suffering severely in consequenos of this, but there is one instance where native competition has been successfully challenged, or very nearly so, by a foreign publishing house. Messrs. McMillan are producing small, elementary text books at an extremely low price, although the books, in English and Chinese, are printed in London.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.