ABSTRACT
A GOOD many competent observers, including somewho have lived in China and have done business with the Chinese over the greater part of a lifetime, have testified in most enthusiastic terms to the honesty and fair dealing of the Sons of Han. The earliest foreign traders said that 'a Chinaman's word is as good as his bond', and some contend that the saying still holds good. A great many others who are, presumably, equally competent observers, and have enjoyed similar opportunities to gain a practical working knowledge of Chinese business customs, can tell you long and distressing stories of devious turnings down the by-paths of ways that are dark and deceitful. They counter the saying about a Chinaman's word being as good as his bond by declaring that it may well be, because in most instances his bond isn't worth any-
thing anyway; they can bring forth innumerable examples in proot: evidence which is direct, circum.. stantial and convincing. These two directly opposing statements of fact and expressions of opinion are very disconcerting to the outsider who has had no opportunity to acquire any first-hand knowledge and come to his own conclusions, and he naturally wonders which is right. The divergent views, of course, are very easily explained and, in a general way, both are right. The two parties who hold such contradictory opinions have been in contact with different Chinese. One was fortunate in his and the other was not, and has made the same mistake of assuming that his experiences were typical, and that the conduct of the Chinese he knew the pattern for them all. Everyone, no matter what his country, knows that among his own fellow-countrymen there are honest and dishonest men, with a number somewhere in between and, if he ever stopped to think about it, he should realise that the same condition very probably exists in other parts of the world,
. including China. It is very easy to come to certain general conclusions
about other people and nationalities, and with the imperfect mental and emotional equipment which we possess, very difficult to avoid doing so. More than twenty years ago, when I was living in Tokyo, a Belgian, by means of some very clever misrepresentation defrauded me of a typewriter. So far as I can remember he was the first Belgian I had ever met. He was certainly the first one I had ever done any business with, and I made up my mind that he would be the last one. Some years later, when in business in Shanghai, I deliberately let a competitor take a Bel ·an advertising account that I cou have had for the asking, because I had put representatives of that
nationality on a mental black list and didn't want to have any dealings with them.
