There are two classes in China that will not invest their money in China—the people and the officials.
The more silver that is poured into this country the more holes are dug in the ground to bury it. The people have no safe medium for investment owing to official corruption, and the corrupt official of to-day is afraid to invest his money for fear that the corrupt! official of to-morrow will take it away from him. The people bur? their money, and the - officials place theirs in foreign banks, or in the purchase of land in foreign concessions, where protection is afforded by foreign troops.
If the Peking Government is ce hard up for funds to tide over the Chinese New Year, why don't nae Chinese people and Chinese offi cials come to the rescue? There is not a sane Chinese liv that would give, or lend, one dollar to the Peking Government, and there is not a Chinese official still breathing the breath of life that would risk a very small portion of his savings to help the government in which he is an official.
It is the ' poor foreigner that comes to the rescue every time.
The Chinese will not aid their government financially because they do not trust it. We trust it merely because we are not afraid of it, that is, if China defaults, we can land sufficient armed men to get back our money. By this policy of "Kowtowing" to the Peking Government every time that it promises a mutiny, we are simply weakening China, and our own interests in China.
Nornixe To Cortapse-
There is no such thing as the Peking Government. There 1s nothing to collapse. If there is a mutiny of troops there may be a few hundred officials on their way to Tientsin loudly calling for a reinforcement of the foreign troops that now patrol the Peking-Mukden Railway.
The collapse of the so-called Peking Government simply means} the running away from Peking of a crowd of incompetent officials, and it would be a good thing if "they did leave the capital.
If the lack of a foreign loan at} this time would cause the collapse of Peking officialdom, would it not be a good thing to make no loan? There is money it China, and the Chinese should come to the aid of their Government. It is not for the Powers to prevent mutinies, but it is for the Chinese Government to do so. If the officials of Peking are not able to maintain themselves in power for the lack of £5,000,000, this should be proof enough to the Powers that the officials are no good, and are not worth saving.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.