Order of the Orange Nassau on Anniversary Celebration The 25th anniversary of the opening of the Shanghai branch of the Netherlands Trading Society took place on Saturday. Incidentally, it was the 25th anniversary of Mr. Vu Ya-ching's (former chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce) connection with the institution as compradore.
In the morning, Mr, Vu received the congratulations of a host. of friends and business colleagues well a5 many valuable end beautiful presents, among which was the Order of the Orange Nassau.
In presenting the insignia of an Officer. of the Orange Nassau to Mr, Vu, the Netherlands Consul-General, Mr. F, E. H. Groenman, mentioned that the Netherlands Trading Society was founded by the first king of Holland, Kimy William, and the government had always taken a special interest. in the company and had availed itsd? of the company's services og bankers in the Netherlands East Indies. The present queen was a great grand-daughter of the king who founded the society, s0 it was only natural that she also should be interested in it. When this branch in Shanghai was opened, she was still very young, but she knew that it existed and flourished and knew also to whom that was due—to those who had worked for it. At the same time she understood that it was the same here as in her own Department of State, that cabinet ministers came and went, but that one man always retained, and he was called the Secretary General. Tt was something like that here, for although managers and sub: managers came and went, there was always one man fully conversant nnditions and who knew the whole situation, and that was the compradore, Mr. Vu Ya-ching, Tt was in recognition of his great services that he had been nominated Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau. Mr. Groenman then pinned the decoration on Mr. Yu's tunic, Mr. M. Speetman made reference to his long association with Mr. Vu Ya-ching, dating from the time when Mr. Vu and he were connected with the Russo-Chinese Bank, prior to Mr. Yu's becoming compradore of the Netherlands Trading Society. In recognition of their. long standing friendship he asked Mr. Vu to accept the gift of a silver rose bowl.
The Bank's Recognition Mr. L. J, 8. Van Leeuwen, manager of the firm in Shanghai, in presenting Mr, Vu with a large hall clock, said that, 25 years ago, when the office started operations, it was fortunate in securing Mr. Vu as compradore and, in the years of its existence, it had made great strides: "Mr. Vu had done his bit in building up a large and sound business. In recognition of his valuable services, the managing directors had decided to give him lasting token of their appreciation and it was an excellent idea that they should select something typically Dutch, They had succeeded in obtaining an old Dutch clock, which was made more than 200 years ago. The clock was made in 1710 by Simon Anton Hoevenaar and its jai featuren were that, not only did it give the time, but also the day, the number of days in the months, the phases of the moon, the tides and the constellation of' the zodiac. Mr. Van Leeuwen adder that,.working with Mr. Vu had ways been a great personal pleasure to him, especially during the dif-cult times through which they had passed. He hoped that the bank would have Mr. Yu's services for 2 long time to come.
Mr. Vu thanked Mr. Groenman and Mr. Van Leeuwen and said that he was s0 overcome with surprise that he did not know what to say bat, in his heart, were the words "Thank you." He expressed himself as unworthy of the decoration which had been conferred upon him by the Queen of Holland and assured all present that he would continue his efforts for the bank and for the best relations between foreigners and Chinese. He had absolutely no idea that he was to be madman Officer of the Order and it came to him as a complete surprise, Mr, Van Leouwen than presented three other members of the staff who had served for 25 years with tokens of the bank's appreciation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.