Chinese Shipping Clerks Sell Trade Secrets

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22759, 4 October 1948, Page 6

Chinese Shipping Clerks Sell Trade Secrets

(From W. E. Parrott, N.Z.P.A. Reuters Correspondent). HONG KONG (by Airmail). Certain Chinese shipping clerks have formed a syndicate to sell Hong Kong- businessmen their competitors’ trade secrets. The clerks, who are employed by various shipping companies, obtain from bills of lading and other documents details of goods shipped by their respective companies, collate and print the information, and distribute it weekly to “subscribers.”

Through this service the subscribers can learn the nature and quantity of goods shipped by competitors. They can also find out the names and addresses of overseas importers, the type of goods which they are importing from Hong Kong, and the prices at which the goods are being sold. The syndicate provides this illicit service at 25 Hong Kong dollars a month. Certain bank clerks are also in the racket. These men handle the collection of bills for local exporters and pass on information as to prices. With this information, reports the China Mail, many local exporters have been able to enter hew fields and to underquote their rivals. Bank clerks who ’are instrumental in recommending overseas exporters who. place orders receive a commission of from one to two per cent- on the total amount of the order as shown by the invoice handed to the bank.