Incidentally it might be—_mentioned that the Spring Festival Loan was as gross a swindle of the unfortunate Chinese nation as has} fever been perpetrated. To mention one transaction only, by way of example, $3,000,000 worth of the precious bonds issued were mort gaged to the banks for $1,400,000 bearing 20 per cent, interest and this at a time when Dr. W. W. Yen was solemnly assuring the foreign delegates to the tariff conference that the "Republican Government of China" could not consider paying more than 3 or 4 per cent. on the bonds of the consolidated unsecured foreign debt, a statement which. the Legation folk were 1g with, equal solemnity while. they" proposed to make the service of the: consolidated loan a claim on the Customs surplus (prospective and /hypothetical) posterior to the allo ment of large sums annually for the abolition of Hkin.
To return to the bankers: It was! established that they had agreed to work with Ho Teh-lin to the ruin. lof their country's credit in exchange for the redemption of the Spring Festival Loan; and then rumoured and partly established that the. amiable relations established had been further cemented by the return to Minister Ho of the moneys which he had lost over the 06- million" transaction. At all events the banks were fully prepared to float the $20,000,000 loan if Ho Teh-could provide the security by loot-jing the domestic loan service, and the bold attempt made upon this service] naturally elicited from Sir Francis Aglen expressions of disgust which ave the bankers the impression that! the Inspector-General would not, under any circumstances, act as Jcustodian for any future domestic they, quit laponly to one another and' th associates, "our last interest in the Jconsolidated domestic bond service land the. i of the Customs "The existing loan: too stable for us to play with profit and, if|'! there are to be no new loans for us underwrite, cain in General in his administration of the Customs and the domestic bond service while there is every advantage in shaking his position and in getting the domestic loan bonds down to a position on the market where they can be manipulated to our profit."
There is probably no foreign icleirate in Peking who does not realiz.
of trying to restore order and stability where disorder and are best suited to those who should be the custodians of the nation' credit. Indeed there are certainly some delegates, if not all, who recognize clearly enough that the only possible way of reste financial security and of helping, [Chico to pay her own way, is to restore peace and order through intervention and that financial control alone would not suffice.
Powers Nothing to G:
Apart from purely altruistic considerations, it-is also clearly enough recognized' that the Powers have little to gain for their nationals by carrying the conference on, despite Jdelays, to the point where the abelition of likin and the funding of the unsecured debt can be embodied in a treaty or a Keries of agreements, because neither the existing Chinese regime: nor any Government in prospect can_supply the guarantees! without which such nominal advant-_
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.