James Kerfoot

“ At the beginning, the labour question presented some difficulty, but the women, having worked cotton and yarn in their homes, make apt pupils, and, unless the foreign mills start working during the night, there are now sufficient hands obtainable, except for a few months in the summer. When the quality of cotton used is taken into consideration, the Chinese operative, under foreign supervision, is quite as cheap and as expert as operatives in Japan and India. The foreign mills are worked during the day only, from 6 a.m. ”

“ Large quantities of coarse cloth are placed on the market by this means at a price at which it is impossible for power-looms to compete. If it were possible to spin yarns of, say, from 20's to 24's from native cotton, a tremendous expansion would take place in the weaving industry, because this would allow Chinese mills to compete against Japanese and American cloths, made from American and better-class Indian cottons. At the present time best Chinese cotton cannot be spun successfully into higher counts than 16's yarn owing to its short staple. ”

“ One of the earliest ventures in this direction was the Chinese-owned mill, built in 1891, near the point on the Yangtsze Poo Road, Shanghai. This has always been regarded, more or less, as a Government venture. Financially, it has never been successful. The management has been entirely in Chinese hands, and "squeezing"—a colloquial expression describing the pernicious system of securing illicit personal commissions from every kind of business transaction has been notorious. ”