I never said anything so foolish, what I did say was that many o. ~.e Chinese shareholders had gone away from Shanghai without leaving us any address and consequently it would be impossible to get hold of them to request them to exchange their old share scrip for new ones which, if not done, would mean keeping the liquidation open for several years and anyone who has ever had anything to do with a liquidation will agree. with me that this is matter of very considerable practical inconvenience. I agree that in principle the theory of amalgamation is a sound one but, the fantastic savings in expenditure that certain people allege, would accrue therefrom are, in the case of Shanghai companies, largely imaginary.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.