A NEW TERROR TO DEBTORS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 4, 5 January 1914, Page 4

A NEW TERROR TO DEBTORS.

It is truly said that terrors lurk iu the unknown, and remarkable proof of this has, it is alleged, been given by a Japanese clerk who applied for a .situation in a London merchant's office. He was told that he might come on trial, and. if : i the course of the week he could do anything to justify it. he would receive a permanent appointment. As a test he was instructed to write polite but firm letters to twenty of the most notoriously "longwiiuled" customers on the firm's books. That was on the Monday. On the Wednesday came a reply to each letter. In each letter was enclosed a cheque and an abject apology for the delay in the settlement of the overdue account. The young Japanese, on being interrogated by the principal ol the firm, replied that he had obeyed his instructions. lie had writtet. politely and firmly. The letter sent to the customers read:—"Dear Sir—lt is with great regret that we find you have not paid your honourable account. We have carefullv regarded

the case, and are pained t(- inform you that, unless you send a remittance bv Wednesday morning, we shall have

to take a course of action that will cause you tlie utmost astoaishme.it." The narrator of the story expresses the belief that it was ill" horrible uncertainty as to what might he the con-

sequences of non-payment that produced those twenty re!m r raK"e.'. In this case, at any rate, ihc politeness and firmness worked together nidi the best results.