The Legations' Note to the chiaopu dealing with the conditions on which the four Great Powers are prepared to lend £5,000,000 to China will be regarded with mixed feelings. The one great asset is that agreement has been secured on the indispensable principle that money.cannot and must not be entrusted to Peking without rigid supervision of its employment. The second cause for satisfaction is that the loan is to be applied to the disbandment of unnecessary troops which the Powers are to supervise. On the other hand, for the effective carrying out of the latter condition the amount of the loan is ridiculously inadequate. At present rates of. exchange and after payment of the usual commissions not much more than ten tullian taels will be realized. This may serve to disband troops in north China, not too far from the Peking area, But it can never reach all the wastrels of the pi vincial garrisons. Moreover it is not enough for the Powers to see that some troops are disbanded. They must also see that there is permanent work for them thereafter, as on roads, conservancy. ete. How much will remain out of the five millions for that? It is also regrettable that the Note—if correctly reported—should lend continu. ed recognition to the fiction of a split} between North and South. There is no such division in reality. The sue is between militarist and control. To pretend otherwise is simply to play into the hands of the former faction. But. the most questionable part of the whole Note is the opportunity which it gives to Peking to refuse. Having gone so far in interfering (very properly. considering the men they have to deal with) in the internal affairs of China as to say, "You must accept these terms or we will not lend you any money,"" why, why not have gone the whole hog and said. "You must accept these terms and we will lend you the money to carry them out." There are men in Peking who would almost sooner find the money themselves than borrow it on these conditions, and the Powers have missed a great opportunity in allowing them the option of refusal. They may not refuse openly, but it whi be interesting to sce how they will wriggle round the obligation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.