The 29th ordinary meeting "f shareholders in the above company was held at the offices of the general managers (Messrs. Libert Ca., Ld.), No 1 Canton Road, on Monday afternoon. Sir Edward Pearce presided, supported - by Messrs. A. Howard, K. Otani, R W. Wells and Vu Pao-san, the total attendance representing 72,370 shares, In his speech, the Chairman. said:
The year has been one of exceptional difficulty in the spinning and weaving trades, not alone in China, but practically in every couril in the world, and it was obvious that the great prosperity of the preceding years could not continue indefinitely. The chief cause of the poor results which we have to put before you, was the almost paralyzed state of trade during several months of the year, resulting alike from the larger operations of organized bodies of so-called troops ju the spring and summer, and from the lesser but far more widespread depredations of small bands of robbers, pirates and local chieftains, who have destroyed the coufidence of traders in large areas, and practically brought to an end the movement of produce and of manufactured goods alike. The result of the state of affairs which has thus arisen is that we have had te carry very large stocks of yarn, and at times cloth, involving an expenditure on interest alone, as you will see from the accounts, of Tls. 69,325.76. Under the cairo cumstances described it was impossible to secure satisfactory prices for our products during the greater part of the year, and in fact in the autumn both cloth and yarn fell away sharply in value, while cotton still remained relatively high.
What I have said above applies more to yarn than to cloth, the latter, in spite of several spells of stagnation, having given fairly satisiactory results on. the whole. Our cloths are now fortunately well-established in outlets only slightly affected by political troubles and this section of our industry should prove to be a useful and remunerative asset when trade conditions
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.