Nov. 23.
Or the much vaunted strike of piece goods dealers little or nothing was heard yesterday, and even at this early stage we believe it is possible to announce it as the failure it deserved to be. On Saturday a deputation was abroad requesting hongs to close their doors, but where firms of standing were approached agitators were asked to move along. So this week sees business as usual, which is just what was to be expected considering who the agitators are and whose interests they represent. These people, up to the eyes in difficulties, had set out to obtain the fullest publicity for their case—which was nothing more nor less than a demand for wholesale cancellation of contracts—and to arouse the greatest measure of sympathy for themselves, but what they have succeeded in achieving is a degree of notoriety. In considering their action it cannot be too often emphasized that they are in no sense representative of the piece goods trade as we have known it hitherto. The body which really represents that trade is the Piece Goods Guild, the* Tsung Hua Tang, a body whose history goes back for sixty-five" years and whose integrity remains unquestioned in these times of stress.
The present agitators belong to other groups which may have a superficial resemblance to the Guild, but that is all. They were until two days ago led by an organization known as the Exchange Maintenance Society,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.