The Ceremony Performed by H.M.
Consul-General: A Hong with an Historic Record the roof flat of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.'s new building, 27 The Bend, at 11.30 on Wednesday there was a very large gathering of guests, both foreign and Chinese, to attend the formal opening ceremony. The foreigners present included British Consular officials, as well as representatives of almost every business house in Shanghai, and among the large attendance of Chinese _were members of the most prominent hongs, as well as Mr. Hsu Yuan, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Major-Gen. Waung Chin-yuan, Chief of Staff to Gen. Ho Feng-ling: Messrs. S. K. Chen and N. T. Yang, Chief Secretaries of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs.
In opening the proceedings, Mr. John Johnstone, who has been formerly, for many years, general manager of the firm, both in Shanghai and Hongkong, asked Mr. Sidney Barton, c.a.c., H. M. Consul-General, to declare the otices open, and im doing so presented him with a key, symbolical of the opening.
The key was beautifully modelled in silver, and with a handle consisting of the Ewo monogram and the "hong" flag (St- Andrew's Cross) in blue and white enamel, bore the inscription, "Presented ta Sidney Barton, Esq., oM.c, on the occasion of the opening of the new building of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Ca., Shanghai, November 15, 1922.""
Mr. Barton said that he regretted the task which had been allotted him that day for the reason that it had not fallen upon the shoulders of some one more representative than himself and therefore better fitted to deal with such an important event in Shanghai.as the opening of the Ewo building. It had happened, however, that it had fallen to him, as a representative of H. M. Consulate, and therefore a representative of that institution which had been a next-door neigh-hour of Jardine's for some 80 years, and ever since foreigners had first come to Shanghai. It would be superfluous for him, he thought, to speak to an audience of people resident. in China on the history of the "hong." That history, as they all knew, covered and was practically the history of British trade in China since the auguration of free trade and the disappearance of the old East India Ca. A direct descendant of the East India Ca, was a founder, or an employee, of the old Jardine Company. The firm of Jardine waa started in Canton in the first place, and ever since had followed the development of the country and the extension of foreign and friendly relations with Chinese, with operations in new centres of trade, as they were gradually opened up, during a period of 80 years, until their
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.