Ir is well-known that the Chinese authorities have translations made from many English and other foreign newsprpors. We fancy, however, that the translations are merely extracts picked out by some one who is supposed to know what is likely to prove interesting. This plan has its evident advantages and its less evident defects, It eaves the officials the trouble of reading a vast amount of matter in which they cannot possibly tuke any interest, but, on the other haud, it gives a very false idea of the importance attached by foreign nations to the mutters in which the Chinese nation or the Chinese official class is interested.
Wo' wonder what would be the effect of making a translation of the summary of nows contained in some of our Home newspapers and asking some high official to read_it... Wefanoy that i woutd~atrike him with amazement, and would lend him to believe that the ways of the foreigner were past finding out, If he happened to look at one of the summaries received by last mail, he would see that a worthy gentle. man had received the honour of knighthood; he would also see that a show of fat cattle had been held at the Agricultural Hall in London, and between these two important items he would find it recorded that the late Indian 849% loan for £3,500,000 bad been subscribed for four times over at about 4 por cent, above par, It would not be altogether useless that he should sco what is really financial transaction of some ~importanoo in such strange company. It would give hima better idea than volumes of extracts of the quiet way in which such matters are managed in our country. If be has from time to time been supplied with full particulars regarding our troubles in Afghanistan and at the Cape, it cannot but be perplexing to him to see how our great dependency can borrow apparently as much as she likes at rates of interest which to the Chinese mind must appear dicolons, and he can hardly help giving some grave consideration to the question of why that China can only borrow on such onerous terms. It may indeed be hard to peranade him that*the statement is absolutely true, He may fancy that the lenders are in some way forced to take up the loan, or that in some way or other the Government has in trath to pay more for the accommodation than the published facts would lead us to believe; but when he is convinced that the facts are as stated, he is fairly entitled: to feel surprise at the result, seeing that it is actually much better than the Indian authorities expected. OF course, China cannot borrow on the same terms as Hugland or India, but the difference between the interest paid by the. English and Chinese Governments cannot by any reasonable mau be held to represent their respective credits inthe financial world. The greater part of the difference arises from the fact that the conditions of the loans differ, or one might say are almost diametrically opposed to each other. Conditions which England considers reasonable and fair, China looks upon as humiliating in the extreme, and as she refuses to give those pledges which all sensible people look upon as matters of course, she has to pay extortionate interest and gets laughed at for her pains. The fact that China can borrow at all under present conditions shows that her credit stands high among the nations of the world. The fact that China is @ country with a silver currency (if currency it can be called) is no bar to her making rensou able arrangements in the money market, The fact that four taels will only bay as much gold as three tools would buy some years ago, is no greater difficulty than the fact that four picals of tea will only bay as much gold as at one time could be had for three joed the Intter is the more serious of the two. A fall in the value of the prodactions of @ country is a much more serious thing than a fall in the value of its standard currency compared with the standard currency of other nation India no doubt has one tremendous difficalty to grapple with, and that is that a large portion of her revenue raised in silver from taxes on land, the amount of whi been settled in perpetuity, but in spite of this she manages to get along, Possibly if people did not look upon her as a dependency of England, which England must support at all hazards, she might find some difficulty in borrowing, but England is not more bound to stick by her than she was some years ago, and it la a notable fact that the more India borrows the less interest she lias to pay. One can fancy the trials and troubles of a finance Minister to Turkey or Egypt, but what a glorious time a finance Minister might have in China if he were only permitted to act like rational being. China has not borrowed much as yet, but she may have to borrow in the future; and that man would be doing her a good service who would ask her officials to try to find out how it is that India can borrow at less than 3} per cent., and that people only regret that she will not borrow four times as mach.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.