Sir John Jordan, in his speech at the dinner of the China Association in London, referring tothe efforts to develop inter-Imperial trade, declared that trade outside the Empire was equally import' ant. China's foreign trade was nearly £300,000,000 and she was the largest undeveloped world market to-day. British trade _in China was unsatisfactory. For example, export of cotton goods to China during the first six months of 1923 was only about one-eighth of the export to India; as compared to about one-quarter normally. At that rate the trade would only employ about 50,000 men instead of 100,000. The disorganization in China was not the only cause of the decrease. The very foundations of British trade in China were being undermined by new and insidious assaults from without. Soviet envoys in Peking were preaching to applaud. ing audiences of Chinese statesmen the doctrines which had brought Russia to. her present state, and the seed was being sowed in_ receptive soil for a harvest of similar upheavals in China. Incessant- vigilance was necessary to maintain the British position in China in the present dissolving conditions of the whole of the Eastern world.
Sir John Jordan paid a tribute to the great services of the Chambers of British Commerce in the Far East. He expressed the conviction that their wonderful patience and tenacity' of purpose. would pull the Chinese through their difficulties.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.