Sir Charles Addis protested that when he told the members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce that the Consortium might consider loans for constructive _purposes to the independent provinces, he anticipated no such interpretation and foresaw no such result of the suggested action. He said that China needed more and better communications bad}y, that improved communications directly promoted unification and that it seemed unfair that the people of China should have to wait an indefinite time, until China was reunited and had evolved a perfect Government, for benefits which the Consortium had been organized to bestow. The political aspect of his suggestion he had not considered; direct dealings with the provinees had* simply occurred to him as a short cut to helpful action on the Consortium's part—action otherwise bound to be delayed until China had evolved a Government with authority to set the Consortium to work in any and every province where the need of constructive finance was apparent. This is a paraphrase of Sir Charles Addis's commentary upon his own statement.
If the carrying out of this suggestion actually involved a withdrawal of recognition from Peking's government as the sole admin: trative authority in China, it would be a radical departure from the timid and stereotyped diplomacy of the Legation Quarter which most of us would heartily applaud. To withdraw recognition from Peking and bestow it upon any other faction or group of politicians or military leaders just to satisfy the diplomats who are not comfortable unless they are accredited to something, would be criminal folly. But to couple a withdrawal from Peking with an announcement that local authorities, Peking included, would be dealt with upon their aments, diplomatically supported in constructive work as de facto authorities only; and if it were also announced that no Government in China which did not enjoy the confidence and support of all China would ever be granted full diplomatic recognition, it would be an unqualified boon ' for many reasons which the writer has taken pains to explain in previous articles. If the Consortium leads the way to this happy consummation, it will have contributed more materially to China's regeneration than any number of loans, however constructive, could possibly do.
'THe Unsorat Concession Hunter.
The average business man in Peking, where there is no general commerce worth mentioning, looks upon the Government's financial condition from a wholly unmoral point of view. He likes to see the Government have lots of money and more credit, because his success depends upon his ability to sell the Government his wares whether they are needed or not, whether they are helpful or detrimental to hina, During the epoch of the Nishihara loans Peking was a splendid business centre. It concerned no one how the money was obtained, how the Chinese people were to pay it back, how the individuals who spent it lavishly had contrived to get it into their particular hands, The Japanese were not asking for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.