T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance, he describes how the finances of the country have been disrupted by militarism and the el il war.
He has been required to find $1,600,000 every five days during the whole of the Northern Expedition for military purposes and there was no or little money for civil administration, All important taxes have been hypothecated so that unless the Government adopts his programme for unified taxation, a budget system and unified collection of taxes, there will be no funds avai ble in the immediate future.
He offers a programme which he thinks will stabilize the income of revenue and he suggests a Budget Committee to control expenditure.
He believes that unilateral declaration of tariff autonomy, which he regards as a necessity, wi not succeed and favours negotiations.
Mr, T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance of the Nationalist Government, has presented the following statement to the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang, in the form of a resolution calling' for the uaifieation of finance, the adoption of a national budget, the reorganization of taxation and the carrying into effect of the principles of the Beonomic and Financial Conferences:
Following the establishment of the Government in Nanking last summer, the Northern Expedition was suspended for over half a yea On January 7, of this year, when the fast approaching Chinese New Eve was making the financial condition of the Govern-expenses, which were months in arrears. On the other hand, the Government could rely for* its revenues only o4 three Provinces, namely, Kiangsu, Chekiang, and Anhui; and of these, Anhui was unable to remit any funds, so that only Kiangsa and Chékiang's contutions could be counted upon.
Fortunately at this critical moment, I was favoured with the confidence and support of the people, so that in less than ten days, after resuming my duties, I succeeded in raising more than' $12,000,000 to meet the pressing demands for various military and administrative expenses for a month, thus enabling the Governme't to tide over the ment more critical than ever, I was called upon to resume the tesponies of the Minister of Finance. With the various armies pressing for funds, it was then almost impossible to meet the immediate demands, not to speak of paying the military
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.