Maitland. the president. remarked thatThe working expenses had been considerably reduced almost entirely by the great fall of the gold price of silver. * * * For the repairs of their steamers very large amounts of money were annually needed. and they had already commenced to make repairs in Singapore. China. and Japan. With the dollar at 2 shillings the skilled Asiatic will work for a month for less than a skilled British subject will work for a week. This testimony regarding the danger to the shipbuilding industry is supplemented by that of the chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental. the greatest steamship line plying between the Orient and Europe. who has not hesitated to predict that if the Chinese and Japanese continue to retain the advantage which the excessive appreciation of the value of gold gives them. the new vessels of the company will be built in those countries. and he adds that it is not at all improbable that the Chinese and the Japanese in the near future will build ships to be operated in Western waters. On the 20th of September. 1894. the Hongkong Press published an article from the pen of H.