Interview with Minister of Finance: The Legacy of Many Years Peking, Nov. 16.
Interviewed by Reuter's re-} presentative yesterday. afternoon, Mr. Lo Wen-kan, Minister of Finance said it was not exactly correct to say that he had drafted a financial reorganization plan, but he had. formulated certain ideas about financial reorganization. which he hoped would ultimately be put into effect. He had come into office at a most difficult time. When he entered the Ministry of Finance there was not a dollar in the treasury, and it was only by; issuing the 11th year loan that the! government had been enabled to} tide over the period of the festival. Certainly none of his predecessors had been in quite as bad a hole as he, for the financial position had been steadily growing worse.
'The present condition of China's; finances had not been brought' about in a day. It began to be! evolved a decade ago, loans had been contracted during the Manchu! regime for current expenditure. A period of relief from financial! Worries occurred during President Yuan's time, owing to the facts? thal he secured the Reorganization: Loan and obtained control over the provinces. Thus there was a smooth period then, but in the} seventh and eighth years of the} Republic ithe Government virtually existed on foreign loans, the so-called Antu loans, All these loans} made China's financial position so much worse, for her revenues were} not sufliciént to meet expenditure and the situation became gradually worse until the present time, when incessant demands were being made for the payment of foreign and domestic obligations,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.