Mar. 15, British merchants in the Far East fully realize that nowhere will post-bellum trade competition with Germany be more severe than in China. Hence the keenest interest is being taken in the movement to secure a Ministry of Commerce in London, and in the report of a Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee to the Board of Trade on Commercial Intelligence which recommends tariff protection for the manufacturers of certain articles. These matters have not been taken in hand a moment too soon. There are some "'after the war'' problems that may well be postponed, but the question of our future trade is not one of them. Proper machinery must be set up to remedy past deficient cies, to carry the war into the en-amy's markets, lest when peace yomes British trade should be unprepared and the economic war begin with every advantage on the side of Germany. Thus will be noted with approval that in the discussions and recommendations of Chambers of Commerce and Special Committees a new note, that of peremptoriness, being sounded: there is a prevailing disposition not merely to lask attention from the Government, but to damand it. Hitherto uxrchants have patiently tened to the advice of Government officials; now they demand that the Government shall listen to them and that the commercial utility of the Consular Service be increased. At the recent great meeting of commercial men at the Guildhall, Sir Algernon Firth showed what little effect the recommendations of business men to the Government had had in the past. He stated that the Associated Chambers of Commerce had been passing a resolution in favour of the creation of a Ministry of Commerce for 45 years. It would not be true to say that no notice has been taken of it. Twice the House of Commons has passed a resolution in its favour—in 1879, against the declared wishes of the Government—and in 1905 it was actually promised in the King's speech. But nothing more was heard of it at Westminster until the present war.
Lime Juice have recently been shipped from London.
Order a few bottles from your storekeeper day.
Two principal demands are now made by British business men they require the establishment of a Mimstry of Commerce and the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.