Although the Peking Government has been strenuously striving to restore the unity of the nation, the goal appears yet to be still as unattainable as before. Financial authorities have been exerting themselves frantically and indefatigably in trying to obtain various descriptions of loans with which to meet their numerous obligations at the end of the lunar year, but with only partial success. Several Chinese newspapers have made the cynical observation that the whole official China, meaning the Central Government, the provincial thorities and the military commanders, is being kept constantly busy to-day by the all-absorbing task of obtaining money either by contracting loans, or by. practising extortion, or by committing robbery; and that office-bearers have: become so obsessed with playing these games that it is regarded as part of their daily routine! Even Kiangsu, usually considered a rich province, has been reduced to such an impoverished state that Mr. Yen Chia-chi, the present Financia] Gommissioner, has found it necessary to float a short-term provincial 0 loan of $4,000,000, for which he is seeking the sanction of the Provincial Assembly. In. view of the strong popular opposition as expressed through the Chinese Press, mainly on the ground that the obligation of meeting the ever-increasing military expenditure should be a national obligation, Mr. Yen is not likely to receive this sanction.
The Chinese people, who take an an interest in world news, cannot protection of Chinese interests both national and individual.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.