Letter from John Oswald Forsyth to his father

PR82/8

Vladivostock

October 9, 1916,

My dear Dad,
I have for several days 
been considering whether I 
would write a report for my 
own good & the good of British 
Trade, on the chemical 
trade in Russia.
I came to this desk with the
good intention of doing so
& whilst rumaging through
the draws for a block note I
came across one of your old
letters which expelled the
good intention from my
heading driving to hell
where it will probably be used
for passing purposes.
Anyhow I got in its place
a better intention .i.e.
to write ^to you. 
In doing this I might as well 
Kill two birds with one stone
by writing to you & at the same
time give you some idea of
the chemical trade in this
County which will break some
ground for me to work on
when I write my report.

2
As you are probably aware,
Our enemy the German has,
through his system of education
& specialization, taken by a

big lead the foremost place
in the electrical & chemical
industries, compelling
all countries to be absolutely
dependant on him for practically
all their chemical requirements.
This has been obtained by enviable
concentration, industry and 
specilization, By concentration
I mean that they have concentrated
the whole of their scientific forces
for the purpose of becoming the
predominant Power in the
World by preparing for the fight
that they would have to undertake 
to occupy this position.
Here In doing this they have

been compelled to give every
encouragement to their 
chemists and as you are
aware, in the preparing of
munitions there are many
bye products that are valuable
for industrial purposes.
Here the Germans scored

3

they flooded the market with
cheap dyes, drugs etc
working on a low profit &
giving long credits. What
thy have done in Europe &
the World in general you are
aware of, but here I am only 
dealing with Russia.
In this country all chemists 
are licensed by the Government
and only a certain number
are allowed in each town.
The Government allow Jewish
Doctors & chemists to reside
in any part of Russia without
any hindrance, therefore
Jews whose sons were fortunate
enough to be amongst 
the small majority percentage
of their faith allowed to enter 
Colleges & Universaties
had them trained for the 
medical or chemical 
professions. All Jews
speak Yiddish a second 
Cousin to German and
the majority speak good
German. It has not been
difficult therefore for
the German chemical

4
houses to obtain a 
syphathic sympathetic
influence over these
people and as the jew
controls about 75 percent
of the chemist shops in
Russia the Germans 
had their success
assured from the very
beginning especially
when the Germans
studiously encouraged
trade and the British
religiously held haughtily
aloof. The university
professors have all
been educated in Germany
& so the students have
always studied German
methods & terms.
German houses opened 
branches in Russia
appointed agents throughout 
the county and constantly 
had Russian speaking
travellers visiting
their customers throughout
the country

5
The travellers became
personally interested in
the business welfare
of the proprietor dining 
with him & very likely having
a night out with him at
one of the Cafe Chantants.
Before leaving he would
well grease some of the 
assistants & when the 
order was at last received
small ^gratis samples giv would 
be enclosed in the cases,
in the case of soaps, perfumery
& othe fancy lines, for their
customers and themselves.
The British chemical
houses severely left Russia
alone, but at times a
traveller representing
special lines like soap,
perfumery etc. would rush
through the county call on
the British Consul, receive
from him the names of the
best firms, call on them

6
find they could not speak 
English, rush round to
find a rotten interpreter,
rush back to the customer,
struggle with the aid of on the
inferior interpreter to
inform the likely buyer that
his firm made an excellent
article quoted f.o.b steamer
somewhere in England,
deposit with order & balance
against documents
in England. The likely
buyer would glance at
the catalogue asks  what 
in the hell is ₤ S. D, what is

the freight & charges to his
part of Russia & what in 
the Lord's name is tons, cwt, 
qrs, lbs, oz, drs, Give me a

quotation in Roubles per good

in Russia pound for goods
landed in my shop & the

business is yours.
But the English traveller 
could never do this, his

7.
his greatest masterpiece
would be ₤5: 12: 3¼ per
cwt f.o.b cais somewhere
in the Dear old Silly Land.
Mr Fritz Saukraut gave
a comprehensible quotation
to his customer right away
& cleared out with the order
to his practical Vaterland.
Now; in these War days 
we hear what the English are
going to do after the war
with trade, but they have 
a hard job before them 
it will be something like
the transformation of a
flea bitten old sinner
to a white winged soft
voice saint, or the 
conversion of a rank

freetrader to the virtues
of Protection.
Have the faith of a grain
of mustard seed & say to
a mountain, skoot & the

8
mountain hooked it.
Oh for such faith in 
the adaptability of the
British manufacturer.
The British manufacturer of
heavy chemicals have 
more than held their
own against the Germans
for the simple reason
they played him at
his own game & have
always beaten him.
Now Dad I hear you
say, beat it! so I will
conclude this effusion
at some later period.
We are all O.K.
Winter is creeping on to
us, but we are all ok 
& fit to meet it.
Love to all from all.
Yours
[[signature?]]

PR82/8

From J Oswald Forsyth

Now leaving it writtten to father

Mr John Forsyth

of Rosewall

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