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Recently, the Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, 

 supported by the Association for the Protection of the Interests of the 

 German chemical industry, has taken steps to bring the proposal 

 again before the Dutch Parliament, either in the original or in an amended 

 form. We need not assure our readers, that especially our industry, at 

 least in so far as it occupies itself with the manufacture of artificial 

 perfumes, has the greatest interest in bringing to an end the con- 

 dition existing up to the present in Holland, by which all intellectual 

 property which has been acquired outside that country's frontiers 

 occasionally at the heaviest sacrifice, is placed at the mercy of the 

 general public. 



The Dutch Indies are beginning to occupy a more and more 

 important place among the markets of the Far East. 



The longed-for reform of the notorious Alcohol Act in Spain is 

 still in abeyance, for the liberal party has last year made an absolute 

 fiasco, in accomplishing the feat of letting five individual Cabinets 

 follow one another in one and the same year. Since two months the 

 Conservatives are now again at the helm, and it would appear that 

 the country is putting up with this clerical cabinet. It is a matter of 

 regret that this ministry also includes the author of this eventful Alcohol 

 Act, as the hope of obtaining the reform of this Act for which every 

 effort has been made during the last two years by continued agitation, 

 has now been frustated for an indefinite time. For this reason the 

 trade in the branches affected by this Act, that is to say in the circles 

 of our clients, continues to be in a state of depression, and for the 

 immediate future an improvement can hardly be hoped for. It was 

 likewise impossible, in spite of all efforts made by the respective Powers, 

 to come to a definite conclusion with regard to the Commercial Treaties 

 with Germany, France and other nations, as the continuous political 

 quarrels and the frequent changes of Government, occupied the whole 

 of the valuable time. The drought which has now prevailed for months 

 without a prospect of rain, adds to the commercial despondency 

 from which the country suffers, and gives rise to fears of a very 

 severe economic crisis. There is even some talk of an imminent 

 famine in case an abundant rainfall does not change the extremely 

 critical situation. 



Business in the United States has been extremely satisfactory. 

 The largely increased sales of our New York branch prove sufficiently 

 that its efforts, continued now for 35 years, to advance our principles 

 in this greatly sought-after and much consuming market, may be 

 characterised as very successful. If the results of the past year 

 may be called brilliant, the same applies to the prospects for the near 

 future, the more so, as there is every hope that, when the provisional 

 arrangement lapses on June 30 of this year, a new treaty between 



