Hongkong, Oct, 7.
The Chairman's "speech at the annual meeting of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company - will certainly be read with great interest by all foreigners on the China Coast, and will doubtless give rise fo considerable controversy among trade, os iis jose engaged in the shippin
It is, of course, impossible for me to enter fully into all the details of the question at issue. Mr. Johnstone's speech alone occupied nearly eight newspaper columns, and, even so, I suppose, can only be regarded og one side of the case.
men surely must have some basis for the claims they are making and it ig time they made it known. Public sympathy counts for a great deal in such disputes ay these and the men will certainly not, have the public with them if it is true, as Mr. Johnstone suggests, that "the Guilds' policy is cing dictated, not with a view to harmonious working with the Companies, nor with the slightest regard to the future continuance of the Indo-China 8. N, Ca., but with the sole object of immediate gain on the part of those who have little or nothing to lose, with no thought the morrow or for British prestige} in the East."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.