The Government, on the contrary, issued bonds without any authority in excess of the prescribe ed numbers. This unauthorized act was unknown to the public until) March 23, 1922, when Sir Francis Aglen, Inspector General of the' Maritime Customs, brought the' matter to light. There was a panic. The price of national bonds drop-} ped low. With trade depression and political disturbance the panic was leading headlong towards a national financial crisis. To save the Government from going into bankruptcy and to prevent it from further borrowing, the Chinese bankers had to do something and that something was to control effectively the Government loans. A memorandum was accordingly drawn up by the Shanghai Chinese Bankers' Association and submitted to the National Bankers' Conference held at Hangchow last April. The three essential features of the memorandum are as follows:—(1)—The Ministry of Finance should at once inform the Bankers' Association of all particulars of the national Joans redeemed and unredeemed. (2)—The Sinking Funds of the loans should be audited from time to time by the bankers. (%—That in case of new national loans the Government should at once publish all particulars in the Government paper and inform all bankers' associations of the same.
These three points were approved by the Conference and embodied in a petition presented to the Government on -April 20, 1922, which pointed out that loans floated from time to time and not yet redeemed, still amount to more than $300,000,~ 000. According to article 9 of the Consolidated Loan Service which
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.