No directory can be 100 per cent, accurate—not even the Telephone directory. As the sheets are going press or being bound, deaths und removals invalidate a small percentage of the compiler's careful work. Also there is the office boy who makes up the firm's return according to his own lights; the war, which has multiplied by ten the usual number: of days in transit from distant outports, and in many cases has swallowed the mail up, If any such untowardnesses have fallen 10 the fortune of this year's Hong List, the compiler will be: apprised of them by those whom they most concern. It may be a rather! doubting hand that he stretches out towards the ringing telephone until the 1939 edition has had time to: shake down into place. Will the Voice be congratulatory or—? For itis human nature for every man to turn fo the most important name in the book directly he lays hands upon it.
In these critical times, more per-hops than ever, the compilation of the China Hong List is a real service to the community. In no other way could information on such a scale be provided for business man. householder alike. In addition to its value as a directory it records one Hulda Maersk Here on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.