Tre report that a loan of £10,000,000 is being arranged in London has, it may well be believed, caused a sensation in Peking. Nothing less, perhaps, could be expected after the ex. Posure of the scheme for a Belgian loan had, as it was thought, cleared the air, and convinced the Government of the necessity of straightforward negotiations with the international group. For some' weeks past belief in an ultimately satisfactory outcome of these negotiations has been steadily growing, and to the more optimistic this latest information will come as somewhat of a surprise. The loan, it appears, is being arranged through the agency of the Chinese Minister in London, where a preliminary agreement is reported to have been signed. It is explained that the negotiations have been conducted independently by Hsiung Hsi-ling, ex-Minister of Finance, of whose doings, it may be noted, remarkably little has of late been heard. The international _bankers, who have been bearing the burden and heat of the day in Peking, are not unnaturally indignant at this latest move in a very all Eastern game. But those who are best acquainted with the essential features of the Chinese character in general, and of the methods of Chinese officials in particular, will be least surprised at the turn that events are taking: the whole story is so typically Chinese, so reminiscent of previous financial dealings with the foreigner, and so utterly inconsistent with those Western ideals which, as is being demonstrated daily, are as yet insecure-grafted upon the ancient stem f China.
Interesting as is this evidence
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.