Peking's Efforts to Raise Money by Discounting Stamp Taxes: An Amazing Admission Peking, Apr. 18.
With reference to the so-called "Stamp Scandal," the official explanation of the affair is as follows The Government at present has no source of revenue and it is dificult to find securities that can be pledged, so officials have been very puzzled as to how to pay the police and gendarmerie and meet other administrative expenses. It was therefore suggested to raise money by printing revenue stamps and using them as_ security. The proposal was not that' they should Just at the time that this proposal was made the Government received a wire from General Lin Chun-ting, the Civil Governor of Kuangsi, stating that Kuangsi had been without a stamp tax for scme time and asking the' Government to send him $1,000,000 worth of revenue stamps at once in small denominations of one and two cents for use by the local shopkeepers and small merchants. The Cabinet unanimously agreed to carry out his request, and the order was: given to print stamps for that amount.
It was then decided to print $5,000,000 worth of stamps, one million to send to Kuangsi and the other four million dollars worth for a security on which to raise a loan of $1,800,000. Certain Chinese banks were approached and agreed to take these stamps.
While the Director of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving was working day and night to get this large number of stamps printed, the Director of the Revenue Stamp Department found out what was going on and was indignant because he had not been previously informed of the matter. The matter then became public and the Director of the Printing and Engraving Bureau and the Director of the Treasury Department have been accused of malpractices. A great deal of agitation has thus been stirred up, several interpellations have been made in Parliament and accusations have been levelled against the Government, but officials insist that there is no ground for any charge of corruption. 6
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.