1903 - The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce

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L
In voicing the views of the Mercantile Community on this question,
my Committee are not representing the facts too strongly in stating
that the new conditions imposed by your Companies are strongly objected
to not merely on account of their arbitrary nature, but as another
instance o£ the discriminatiou between your dealings with customers at
home and abroad. Credit i:,; given at home without demur to any respectable
firm and their husiness eagerly sought for on account of the
healthy competition. In this connection, as you stated that you mu:-t
act alike to all parties, it would be interesting to know what deposit has
been required from tht' Government as secur ity for their monthly
telegram account, al~o what percentage of bad debts havfl been made in
Hongkong ,;ince e::;tabli,;hment here. The latter must be infinitesimal
and i::; another argument against the neces:;ity for requiring credit. Your
Companies are as well placed as any Mercantile house in tL.e Colony for
gauging the stability of yom customer~; there is no valid reason why
credit should not be given by you instead of to you; and my Committee
woul(l be the la~t to put any ob~tacl es in your way in cases wlwre it
appear:; to you to lJe ach·isahle for financial rl:'asons to ask for cash
payments.
In reply to an enquirer you have stated that there is no Govemment
Telegraph Office in the "' orld where teleg rams can he handed in
without cash payment.. This fact is not denied, but the Committee do
not feel called upon to dfend th business methods of Government
institutions. Nor can tlwy admit the inference you wish to draw that
your Administrations are on the same ba~i~ a" GoYemmnnt. Department~,
in face of the fact that you are both limited liability companies formed
for purpose of profit to your ::;hareholder;;. One of the chief reasons
why you \vere able to obtain certain privileges as regards landing
rights was in view o£ the benefit which commerce would be likely to
enjoy through thP quick transmi,.: ~ ion of new,.:. For no other rrason
would you haw obtaine(l the,.:e priYilege,; at a nominal coi't, ant! it was
not tb en suppo,.:pJ that you would take n dntntage in dealing \Yith your
customers o£ tlw fact of thr~e priYileges haYing remltPd in the fo rmation
of a monopoly.
In conc:lu;.:ion I am to ,;tatc that thi,; Chamber would welcome a
more grnerou=- treatment of the Mercantile Community of t hi~ Colony
in tlw certain belief that it \\·onlLl be to the mutual admntage o£ all
concrnwLl, and in regard to the question nm,· uml