Mr. McDonald said that the club was unlike most other Chinese clubs in Shanghai. It was operated on entirely modern lines and it was the first of its kind here and probably in the whole of China. Its members represented the whole of the province of Kuangtung. They occupied premises at Ningpo Road, above the Canton Guild, but there were separate entrances. There were 100 members, all either men of high business standing or ex-officials who had held high office. Their aims were to promote rela-} tions between fellow-countrymen and to study business. The club was inaugurated in 1917: it possessed a billiard room, reception room, reading room, etc., but, unlike most other Chinese clubs, it would not allow the admission of singsong girls under any conditions. The entrance fee was $100 and the monthly subscription $3. The original licence was subject to no conditions and the particular clause to which objection now was taken did not operate. Mr. Chun Bing-him then was president of the club, but later he resigned and on September 30, 1919, the vice-president requested the police to trans-for the licence to his name. A reply was received from the Municipal Council stating that there was no reason to believe that it would continue to be a non-political and business men's club, but up to the present no reason had been given for that suggestion. The club then gave an assurance that it was entirely a business and non-Political institution and the Council later admitted that the information on which they had acted was incorrect, but said that they considered it was undesirable that the club should continue to exist unless it were put on a proper basis.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.