230 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE,

are granted only on conditions of settlement and improvement or
by special concessions. These special concessions are left largely
in the hands of the local government, and foreign corporations
might sometimes find themselves at a disadvantage. However, the
principal landholders in French Indo-China have always been German
 firms and the principal industry, rice milling, is now_entirely
in the hands of the Chinese. The two conditions favoring French
goods, which are a result of French governmental policy, are a
tariff (not so high as ours in the Philippines) and a heavy subsidy
to the two French lines—the Messageries Maritimes and the Chargours
 Rounis, carrying goods from France to Indo-China.

INDIA.

Special Soper of Consul General James A. Smith, Calcutta, India, December
From inquiries which have been made of official sources regarding
cartels, syndicates, or combinations in India it appears that information
 regarding them is exceedingly meager.
Industrially speaking, India is not nearly so advanced as those
countries where cartels or trusts are usually found. Before the outbreak
 of the war there was a reported combine, or quasi combine, in
the Indian hide trade, with headquarters in Calcutta, controlled to
a very large extent by German interests. With the commencement
of hostilities this organization, which had, owing to its methods,
been severely criticized, automatically ceased business as a syndicate,
and, so far as can be ascertained, there are at the present time no
industrial combinations in India which, strictly speaking, can be
described as trusts or cartels organized for the express purpose of
controlling prices and eliminating competition.
A possible, but partial, exception to this situation is the Standard
Oil Co., which maintains branches in India ‘and is popularly supposed
 to have a working agreement with the Burmah Bit Co. and the
Asiatic Petroleum Co. in connection with the marketing of illuminating
 oil. The extent of this agreement is not known, however, in
either commercial or official circles outside the interested concerns,
and the latter are naturally averse to divulge to the public any facts
regarding it. Rate wars between the Standard and Shell interests,
which involved Burmah companies, broke out as long ago as 1910.
The conflict was supposed to have resulted from overproduction
and the appearance of new competitors with supposed or expected
encroachments on the spheres of conventional rights of the respective
companies.
With imports of kerosene aggregating in the last fiscal year 188,-000,000
 gallons, Burmah oil was imported into India to the extent of
108,000,000 gallons, and if the entire imports from the United States
of 47,000,000 gallons are considered as from the Standard Oil Co.,
which is probably the case, it is apparent that the complete control
of the market is not altogether in the hands of these companies, and
that kerosene from Persia and Russia compete in this market with
the Standard and Burmah interests and those of the Asiatic Petroleum
 Co., which latter company, I am informed, markets the oil
received here from the Strait: 'nd Borneo.