APPENDIX  B  4°3
source  they  did  arise,  the  business  did  not  flourish,  and  after
about  a  year  things  were  so  bad  that  the  plaintiff  left  Changsha
because  he  thought  it  was  useless  to  go  on,  and  he  returned  to
Hankow.  A  claim  was  later  made  for  the  intervention  of  the
British  authorities  in  Peking,  and  they  did  inteivene,  with  the
result  that  payment  of  Tls.5,200  was  made.  I  think  it  is  quite
clear  from  Mr.  Frazer’s  letter,  which  was  put  in,  how  that  sum
was  arrived  at  and  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  paid.  It  was
to  be,  shortly,  for  compensation  for  disturbance  ;  and  the  person
who  had  approached  the  British  authorities  was  the  defendant
in  this  action,  and,  therefore,  naturally  it  was  to  him  that  the
communications  of  the  British  Consul-General  at  Hankow  were
addressed.  The  terms  of  the  communications  between  the
British  Consul  and  Mr.  Bennertz  would,  of  course,  in  no  way
affect  any  liability  which  Mr.  Bennertz  was  under  to  third  parties
—that  is  to  say,  parties  other  than  himself  and  the  British  Government—in ­
  the  distribution  of  this  sum.  That  appears  to  be  the
way  the  Tls.5,200  was  paid.  As  regards  the  various  sums
which  were  from  time  to  time  expended  in  this  business,  I  am
unable  to  find  that  there  was  any  capital  found  by  either  of  the
parties  ;  I  think  they  each  managed  to  scrape  along  as  best  they
could  in  Changsha,  paying  their  own  expenses  and  hoping  things
would  improve.  Unfortunately  they  did  not.  Then  comes  the
29th  of  J  une,  when  there  was  an  interview  ;  when  the  plaintiff
decided  that,  as  he  had  something  definite  to  go  to  at  Hankow  and
nothing  definite  to  remain  for  at  Changsha,  he  had  better  go  to
Hankow.  On  the  evidence  before  me  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion ­
  that  these  two  parties  did  do  business  in  partnership  from  the
date  of  this  contract,  namely  July  4,  1904,  down  to  June  29,  1905,
and  that  on  that  date  the  partnership  was  dissolved  by  mutual
consent.  I  will  finish  the  story  first,  before  I  come  to  the  terms
of  that  partnership.  I  think  that  after  that  the  business  was
carried  on  by  Mr.  Bennertz  alone.  He  came  down  to  Shanghai
to  see  what  he  could  do  ;  the  whole  of  the  responsibility  was
upon  him  ;  he  was  the  only  person  looked  to  by  the  Chinese
authorities  in  Changsha  ;  and  the  plaintiff  does  not  appear  to
have  taken  any  steps  with  respect  to  the  business,  and  except
with  regard  to  a  loan  on  one  occasion—which  amounted  to  very
little—he  does  not  appear  to  have  done  anything  with  reference
to  this  partnership  or  the  affairs  of  the  defendant.  Unfortunately
things  did  not  improve.  Mr.  Bennertz  did  not  seem  to  get  on
any  better  with  the  Chinese  than  before,  and  Changsha  seems  to
have  opened  its  doors  to  foreign  trade  in  an  extremely  reluctant
manner.  The  end  of  it  was  that  Mr.  Bennertz  appeared  at
Changsha  with  a  considerable  amount  of  goods  which  he  had
been  able  to  secure  in  Shanghai,  and  things  had  to  be  finally