Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1917-07-07
TEUTOn WAYS OF
BUSINESS POOR?
Chinese Find Once Praised German
Methods Cnsonnd and gnprontable
Since War Started.
SYSTEM Barred N PUBLlCATI0S
Book SAYS Huns Knew More About
"HOsy Not 70 DO Than They Did
Abonf How To De-

London. July 7-When the war be-
gan nearly Culrty per cent oE tBe trade
OF Hong Kong, excluding Chinese mar
tive trade. vas in TIE hands Of Ger
mans whose business methods were
considered by many To De most pro-
sgressive ana eu0rtay OF emulation IL
now appears from the 4aFezIl gatlo cI
enemy firms that Ehe methods en-
ploged by the Ie8fouz were, despite
the great volume pa trade UlsodAa
and unproatable. according TO the
nerfoaicaI Truth. which publishes an
article based OH q book Just written
nv Dennis Ii Moss p nam OF long ea~
perfence fu Cbiuse trade ard one *
the LfauiaataEs 0f enemy LrDs ln Kong
Kong.
-The know ledge gained from the
humiliation Is summed up 5y MT mass
as being mainly, Il more ellH z3ls-1
knowledge oL5aoW not % 10 business,
saws Truth Instead of the valuable
lessons in trading methods which
some peoples expected, the merchants
and accountants lu charge Of the "ln.4-
inRs-up discovered practically 1-LH~
4rfr but cvIdep cc-uumistakah-e, COM
elusive evEdenCs-0f the uUaCuE1llea5
and unuroGtabl euess Of the lue4 GA
which the Germans did business
Nearly thirty per cent Of the trade ~
trader was IN their EanGE. oGl t-o@
did not make Oue-twausiet1 OF tAe
nrofts oil taef BEi1l5h-iuGeel. more
than one British firm there makes Tor
itself net profits equal TO those Of slt
the German frLaa Jumped together.
The great aim of the latter was 10
have big turnover. no matter WaeL1-
er there was amy profit or not
Example is Given.
"As an instance ot Lala en t-e 5A~
port side. one firm had built up turn
over of S4 geo 001 O. year IL SILK, bus
ONLY covered the cost of running -l@
denartment. All engaged la cut
Athroat competition not merely against
1APrttish rivals bur against one am
lother and even i'm the handing OF
their oun German and Austrian manu-
features Tn the main. however. me
goods they sold 10 the Ehin6se-E-Fias
dangerously long credlfs--eon5is54 g
Manchester and Bradford goods, IoE
though the pluus OF that trade lH
Hong King were retained hT BRITISH
firms. the Germans had captured
substantial portion OF It by taking
business their books shoWed-9lz
rnfserabIy inadequate terms, some
times even al loss This had tenn
porarily benehted Manchester ana
Bradford merchants. but many Of the
enemy Arms were getting deeper and
deeper into d state OF 5Ge1 chrome
overtrading that very little would
have been needed TO upset the whole
fabric and bring about a crash which
would have seriously injured British
mercantile and banking interests
at is not az au surprising 10 learn
that German firms at Hong King added
dishonesty to their rerAlessue5z 1I
trading The wiDflng-up inquiries
disclosed the fact that the bulk Of
their business was actually done ON
capital borrowed on what we're Tir-1-
ally false preteuses from London EraI-
cial houses. Nor is # surprising To
learn that merchants who treated
their own letters of lien as SO many
scraps of paper deliberately violated
the conditions under which tLey were
allowed 90 continue business i'm Hons
Kong for two or three months after
the outbreak of war
The periodical says that Mr. Moss
certainly shows that the methods of
German traders are for the most part
methods to lee avoided and adds i'm
conclusion
And Hong Kong s NOT the drst
Mace from which we have haa proofs
that German commerce. about the
growth of which we used to hear SO
much. rested on d very unstable fouD-
dati0n