Peking, Oct. 9.
Mr. Frederick W. Stevens, representing the American Consortium Group, is due to arrive in Shanghai! about the 18th of this wonth. Mr. John Jay Abbott, a prominent figure in the group whose connexion with the American Wine and Tobacco loans will be readily recalled, is also en route to China. Foregn financial policy is being very largely shaped by the anticipat tion of the international tariff conference which" will probably meet in Peking in April.. Whatever this policy is to be it will probably take definite form be-} fore Chinese New Year. The; present disposition is to maintain a Government in Peking at all costs so that there will be; something responsible to deal with. Tha recent loan was so half-heartedly opposed with this consideration in mind and it is now suggested on fairly good authority that the Consortium will see to it that the Peking Government has enough money to meet the New Year obligations if the life of the [Government depends upon it.
The Government can be trusted to! make its needs sufficiently urgent and vital to elicit financial support. The actual cash proceeds of tha 11th year internal loan, as the recent hypothecation of the Russian indemnity service is called, amounted ta, about $2,000,000 before the recent festival, which sum was 504 thinly spread out that everyone got a little solace though no one seems to have been paid in full. Subscriptions to the loan amounted to more than four millions and it was anticipated that the Government would be able to borrow from the native banks on the strength of the subscription list. This, so far as the writer can learn, was not done.
Apart. from the Bank of China. which is the sole underwriter of} the loan, the native banks out fi) pique are inclined to eschew it. All the members of the Bankers' Association were offered participation in the sale of the bonds but: held out for a very heavy dis-) count. The Government tried to show them that the bonds were on such good security that they would sell readily to the public at 90, and that since no further discount to the public would be re-! quired it was unfair of the banks} to insist upon a heavy commission. The Bank of China agreed to assume sole responsibility for the sales on the Government's terms and then when the native banks eagerly applied to the Bank of China for a share in the sales that) institution said they could have: all the bonds they wanted—at 90. It was foreseen that the Joan; would be readily oversubscribed by the public and the Bank of China rightly refused to share its profits) with the others.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.