Previously goods carried by British ships had been traced by members of the boycott 2 committee to the merchants to whom they were consigned, and while they had not been confiscated from these merchants, the next shipment of kcods these merchants happened to bya boat nog, under the was immediately seized. Thin neat had its serious eect the trade open to British vessels.
But now, it appears, a declaration' has been made that cargoes carried ch British ships will themselves be, confiscated. How far the agitators, be able to carry this out remains te be seen. The general opinion that, since there is a British gun-oat! in Wanhsien, they cannot carry cut their threat, but there can be Tittle doubt but that such a threat will influence those Chinese ship-vers who play for "safey first."
British merchants point out that t so long as the Wanhsien incident remains diplomatically unsettled, according to the Chinese point of view, agitators and, perhaps, unscrupulous competitors, have always a handle for a weapon te be used against British trade in that area, Mest of the shipping companies in competition with the British above Ichang. with the exception of the Japanese, have no connections with the lower rive and are thus at a disadvantage in carrying cargo the whole length of the Yangtze. Cargo which comes their way must be carried by one of the bigger companies operating from Shanghai or Hankow, as far Ichang, and the facilities offered Ly the companies with a through service to Chungking are advantageous to merchan!
Most of the companies operating Tehang are The part of their capital is Chinese, though the ships are operated under foreign flags. Thi
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.