We desire to express our appreciation of the characteristically capable and conscientious manner in which our Directors discharged their by onerous duties. In view of our Chairman's impending departure from the Colony, we take this opporwunity of wishing him a pleasant Voyage and every success and prosperity in his now spheres of actijes, A man of stoic taste and simplicity of genuine kindness and sympathy, of lofty ideals and vast leapacities, courteous and unostentatious, the Hon. Mr. Bernard will be much missed in Hongkong. We hope that through the channels of the China Association, the London Consultative Committee of this Corporation, and other bodies, the Colony in general, and this Bank in particular, will continue to have the bene fit of his valuable services.
We have all listened, with deep interest to our Chairman's general survey of last year. A comprehensive review of finance, with its Kaleidoscopic reactions to political and other conditions, weighty in its pronouncement by reason of the informed knowledge it. displays, and wide in its geographic scope which is ce-extensive with the Bank world-wide activities, your speech, it. will be read with close attention by the public, and I venture to congratulate you on your fine effort, China's Word Her Bond The state of disrepair and neglect Jot the Chinese railways and the failure of the Authorities to meet the debt obligations, to which our Chairman has made' pointed refer-fences, are matters for deep regret. But speaking ar a Chinese, am ce wineed that the nec taining and revital tial capacity of railways portant factor for the development fof the country is fully appreciated by the Chinese, and that China, as soon as her financial position permits, will honourably meet all her pecuniary obligations. Time will show that China's word is her bond.
The picture which our Chatrman has drawn, of the disastrous results of Communism in and of the consequences and effects of the present chaotic state of China, is pain-folly realistic and true, Tt provides much material for anxious reflection to all true patriots and well wishers of China, As regards Communism, there is doubt to my mind that, to those unacquainted with its stern implica tions, ite dangers, ite utter futility fas an instrument of political remedy, it may exercise an abiding ud i resistible appeal. But if the great sufferings inflicted on the mass of innocent people by the recent Red ré- ime should. serve to convince' the people of Chinn that Communism is destructive and not constructive, a fatal poison and not a panacea, then such sufferings, terrible and paignant as they were, would not have been endored in vain, for they would become instrumental in eradicating this pernicious doctrine from China.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.