Information has been received here that the China Trade Act, the measure which would permit of American companies being incorporated in China on the same lines as are British companies, has passed the Lower House in Washington and the prospects are that it will be successfully navigate ed through the upper chamber. So far as can be learned the chief objection has been on the ground of constitutionality, but this apparently is in a fair way to being overcome. The measure has the support of Mr. Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, and the arguments which led to recent changes in the law affecting British concerns in China appeal to him with very great force. Pointing to the Order in Council requiring a majority of the directors and the effective executive of a British company to be British, he notes that "at the present time it is possible for non-Americans to incorporate companies in the United States and operate China as American State companies, although there may not be a dollar of American capital or a single American individual connected with the enterprise." 2 Mr. Hoover also mentions the laxity of some of the State regulations in America with reference to companies, which has led to the promotion of questionable enterprises in the East. Were justification required for the British Order in Council regarding the constitution of British companies, Mr. Hoover's statement gives it in full, and it is satisfactory to see that in respect of present legislation the American authorities are fully alive to the dangers which must be guarded against on the part of unscrupulous outsiders.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.