Melancholy Review of the Yea lincheng and (After: Lawlessness" on the Yangtve:, Extraordinary Account of Affairs in Fokien: " The Quest of Trademark Registration The annual general meeting of the China "Association was held at the Shanghai Club on 'Thursday evening. Sir Edward Pearce took the chair, and was supported by Blessr3. A. S. Campbell, A.-M. Cannan, A.C. Gicar, A. L. Dickson, E. F. Mackay, Scott' and A. Brooke Sith.
Proposing the adoption of ree port and "accounts "the Chairman Gentlemen,—Before proceeding swith the business of the meeting T would like briefly to. refer to. the death of your late secretary, Mr. Langley-Smith. He was an exceedingly hard worker and had the interests of our Association keenly at heart. "The. sympathy of the Association to his parents: was expressed: in a letter kindly forwarded them by: Messrs. Hansons.
Thave also to record the sad den jot Br. E.G. Hillier who for yea has been' a very active member of the Association' and whose sound advice in. British interests was always available to your Committe. te was a man of great ability and Tam sure in recording our deepest to Mrs. Hillier and his Family in their bereavement, T_ am only echoing the sentiments of all {the members of the Associatio 'The report and accounts having been in your hands for a few weeks and having as T hope been carefully perused by you all, U propose. with Four permission" to take' them as ead.
Following the usual procedure at these meetings Twill deal. briefly with some of the more important subjects which have engaged the tte during the period covered by the report.
The Lincheng Outrage.
At the time of our last annual meeting the entire foreign population in China were dumbfounded by the outrage perpetrated by Shai tung Bandits on the Express Train proceeding from Pukow to Tientsi Jat a small place called Linch The matter was referred to by your Chairman at that meeting. The profound feeling of indignation created is borne out by the number of telegrams despatched by Association in conjunction with the British Chamber of Commerce to the China Association in Land and which are inserted in our one nual report, On August 10, the Diplomatic Body in Peking ' presented their official note of protest to the Chinese Government, since which date further exchange of notes has taken place, but I regret to say that far the Chinese Government has} ignored the demands of the Dip-Tomatic Body.
The regrettable outstanding feature since the date of this out: rage, May 6, 1923, has been the continuation of brigandage, capture and ill-treatment of foreigners, to say nothing of the recent personal attacks on foreigners within the precinets of the Legation Quarter in Peking. An appalling list of this: outrages appears on Pages 16 and 17 of the report.
TaxaTion.—It has to be conceded think that the free passage of goods throughout any country with the [payment of one import or one cxport duty is to the ultimate benefit lof the trader in particular and the country concerned in general. Unfortunately in China we see nothing but divergent and irregular taxation throughout every province. T think we must acknowledge that irregular are one of the Not only are these irregular impositions a hindrance to trade, impoverishing: the country as they do, but it is doubtful whether as a result of the cost and squeeze incurred in their collection, the Provinces concerned really reap any material benefit; the Central Government as things are at present, certainly. obtain no increment to their revenue from these likin sources. "The coastal duties, a hindrance to interport trade, although managed by the Maritime Customs, are equivalent to a likin tax.
China needs to develop her trade. The policy of additional internal taxation, such as the surtax recently imposed by various Provincial auth-iritics on cigarettes is hardly the way, in the words of Article LI of the Washington Treaty, to prepare for the speedy abolition of likin and for the fulfilment of the other conditions laid down in Article VIII.of the Mackay Treaty of 1902.
Weitatwet—I have nothing-fur-, ther to add to what is already stated. in the annual-report concerning the rendition of Weihaiwei.- "The ques-mant, tion for the moment reniains dor
'THe Earrequawe in JaPAn.—[From the correspondence. under' this heading our annual report. you will, have noticed that your Committees associated itself with the Britial Chamber of Commerce "and other purpose of situation of those rendered homeless. Jand penniless by the disastrous effect of the earthquake on September 1, which devastated Yokohama-and ion of Tokio. I thiok it only right on this occasion to express our thanks to the British jand American Women's Associations who did such excellent. relief -worle for those British and' other subjects who were so completely stranded: by the suddenness of the disaster. Our sympathy goes out to the Japanese in their terrible ess of life and property caused by.the earthquake, its dreadful. aftermath, fird The Trademark Deadlock.
Trave MaKKs.—So much has been said and written concerning the new Chinese Trade Mark Law, that I neod not occupy much of your time in, going over the whole subject, except to explain that while nogotiaions were proceeding between the Chinese Government and the Dip-Tomatic Body we were advised not to register under the "new law. The Chinese Government having refused to agree to the very reasonable modifications suggested by the Diplomatic Body foreign Gove ernments wore unable to recognine the law and notified the Chinese Government accordingly.
Insofar as Chinese are concerned therefore, the trade mark tions as promulgated are now law, The luw however is not recognized.
such by Treaty. Powers having extraterritorial rights and consequently cannot be applied by foreign courts, The official position ix fly that full protection. under the Treaties will be claimed by the British Legation and for all our marks whether we ay merchants register under the new China Trade Mark Lay ut not, Most careful consideration has been given to this most important matter by your Committee who hud also the.advantage of the co-opera tion of the British Chamber of Commerce therein. The result has been that both Committees recommend that merchants should not register, T would add to these remarks that the Dean of the Diplomatic Body in a lotter dated April 5 uddrossed to his Excellency Monsieur Welington Koo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, states the following:
"As none of the suggestions or the conditions which I had the honour Jon behalf of the Diplomatic Body to convey to your Bxcelleney in my above mentioned note of January 30 have been followed up or fulfilled, my colleagues desire me to inform your Excellency that they feel unable to advise their Governments to recognize the law or to advise their nationals to register their trade marks in the nowly jereated Bureau.'
Lawlessness in, the Gorges.
Coxpinions on THE UreE YANG-factions have created a state of unchecked lawlessness on the Upper Yangtze, and British vessels have" een subjected to frequent fire from Chinese troops on the river banks against which there has been no redress or apology.
The rival Chinese commanders have boarded our vessels in the anticipation of finding contraband, a suspicion which, so far as one vessels: are concerned, has proved entirely unfounded. ' Several unfortunate incidents have been the outcome of these attacks, notably the death of Cuptain Brandt a. British subject in command of the Chinese str. Tsesui, So fur there has been no actual loss of life on British ships. The object of. our steamers is to promote the development of legitimate trade in accordance with our rights and privileges under Treaty. The rich "province of Szechuan has long been handicapped by inadequate means.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.