While Government finances were thus improving, the unfortunate incidence of the great European war upset all calculations. Although a good advance had been made in the finances of the country without foreign aid, it was believed in the early months of the year that another big loan would prove sential for the setting of China's house in order. A number of problems, including currency, had to be solved and it was thought, and rightly so, that a big outlay was necessary-which could only be got out of a foreign loan. As a matter of fact, up to May, the Quintuple Group' Banks, the Government of China and the Powers concerned were actively engaged in negotiations with regard to a new loan which, but for the war, would have been floated in Europe during the course of the year.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.