The unfortunate incident of May 30, which crippled all British and Japanese trade in China for a time and gave an apparent temporary advantage to the trade of other nations, did not in fact further German trade to any extent, apart from some orders for power and light machinery when the Shanghai Municipal Council's Electricity Department disconnected a number of Chinese industrial cerns in consequence of the workmen's strike in the Municipal Electric Works. The apathy, however, already prevailing in trade before that critical day was so much intensified through that deplorable occurrence as to cause the already reduced volume of business to dwindle to almost mothing.
German shipping received a welcome and much needed fillip during the summer months when the wharf coolies refused to load and unload British ships, through carrying cargo which would
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.