Munitions, Dr. Crawford said, appeared to be plentiful. His wife and he saw thousands of cases of munitions being taken to remote hiding-places in the hills. They also saw a battery of heavy artillery, possibly inch guns, the crews of which of their deposits, while the bank undertook to refund semi-annually in five years the other half of the deposits without interest, ie. in ten equal dividends, Two such dividends had been paid to former Shanghai depositors up to July, 1937; the third dividend, long over-due, has so far not been paid. On the other hand, the head office at Hongkong paid the third dividend in January, 1938, while the Shanghai debenture-holders were told to wait, because of the war situation in Shanghai.
It is understandable that conditions in and around Shanghai may adversely affect the business condition of the local ofice., And it may be reasonable that payment be postponed. But why should Hongkong pay, while Shanghai must wait? Is it reasonable for one office of an stitution to pay its claimants, while another office of the same institution cannot pay at the same time, especially as the losses of the latter were directly caused by the failure of the former?
I should highly appreciate it, if you or some of your readers could enlighten me on the above question from the legal point of view Shanghai,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.