Shanghai, Aug. 19.
To the Editor of the "Nortu-Cama Dairy News."
Srr,—I have been extremely glad to see the strong letters of ''Taipan" on the above subject and would like to assure him how heartily everyone is in agree.nent with his views.
The Banque Industrielle de Chine opened a branch in Mukden in 1920 with a great flourish of trumpets, The then manager (a gentleman much esteemed by the community, and now in France on home leave) by his personal efforts obtained a great deal of small business" amongst the foreigners here and many of them transferred their current accounts from Shanghai to this bank because of the conveniences offered, and in addition, a number had fairly large sums on deposit, representing in two or three instances practically entire life savings.
One Russian gentleman has every cent in the world tied up in this bank, largely on fixed deposit. When the previous scare occurred he took the trouble to ask a French Government official's advice on the matter, and was assured that. the, French Government stood behind the bank, on which assurance he left his money where it was. A number of comparatively low-salaried people, including many Chinese clerks in foreign firms, kept their little all in this bank and I have had dozens. of these people inquire of me if I could give them any information as to when the bank would pay.
One man, for instance, had saved from his monthly wage a sum of about $200, which he deposited in this bank "for safety" (it represented comparative wealth to him) and now he wishes he had run the risk of robbery.
These instances are merely to show that this port has been hit as hardly, in proportion, as other places, and that the ery here is the same as expressed by "Taipan,"' namely, give us a plain unequivocal statement of the bank's position in understandable English.
Every day's delay in issuing this statement renders the Bank's future position more difficult and steadily lowers the prestige of the French nation in the eyes of Chinese and! foreigners alike. As things are at present, the Bank's position is nothing more nor less than a standing disgrace to the French Government and it is up to our many French friends in China to represent this position in strong terms to their government, if they have the true interests of their nation and its high standing at heart. am, ete., Pro-Frevcn. Mukden, Aug. 13.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.