The only hope was to enlist the combined support of the Paris banks and the formation of a syndicate to take over and remodel the Banque Industrielle. A meeting of representatives of these banks was held at the Ministry of Finance the other day, but they one and all expressed their belief that the position was hopeless and that any attempt to bolster up the Banque Industrielle would simply result in putting off the evil day. The result was that the Banque Industrielle had to close its doors on the very day on which the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank resumed business in China.
The decision of the other banks to hold aloof is freely criticized, and it is openly said that they are not sorry to be rid of a competitor which had given _exceptivaally favourable terms to depositors and in other ways cut into the business of the older institutions.
As to the position taken up by the Minister of Finance, it is observed that the Government advanced Frs. 1,200,000,000 to General Koltchak, Frs, 1,200,000,000 to General Wrangel and Fre. 600,000,000 to General Denikin, all in vain, without asking for Parliamentary sanction, and-that Frs. 100,000,000 worth of French Treasury bonds were handed over in exchange for a corresponding amount of Rumanian Treasury bonds to enable Rum-aula to pay overdue interest of her loans.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.