A device resorted to was allocation to Canton of a proportion of the sur-plas—13.7 per cent, to be "aac This worked satisfactorily until in 1920 the Southern Military Government. as it~ was called, was disrupted by internal dis sension and its leaders, Sun Yat-sen, Tang Shao Wa Ting-fang, Med to Shanghai. There rieing ne accredited persons to whom to pay the proportion just mentioned, it was for the time being deposited with the Inspector-General, But meanwhile the Peking Government had evinced a desire for easier access to surplus funds and in 1919 asked that the Inspector-General might bbe freed from the necessity of applying to the Diplomatic Body before releasing revenue. Then in the autumn of 1120 the Cantonese Tead= ers returned to Canton and demand= ed that payment of their share of the surplus should be resumed, The demand was not granted, and a third, threat was made to seize Southern, Custom-houses, the money involved. icing subsequently released to the Peking Government to be employed in specific ways held to be directly and indirectly Ueneficlal to the math Thus custodianship became further involved in Chinese polities.
A still more complicated phase of story: began when in 1921 the Me wed by the consolidate a the prineianwunted to about 100,000, wu the security of the Customs surplus, assisted by certain other royenaes. "Whether the Diplomatic Body as a whole was opposed to this step I'do not know. As far, however, as Tam aware it took no official ction in the matter. Sir Francis Aglen, ut all events, accept~ ed this new responsibility, assuming charge of the National Loans Cone solidated Debt Service, under the authority of a specially' issued mandate, on April 1, 1821. "The reeponity quickly "proved ty be very heave, for in the autumn of that year the Peking Government wanted fan advance from funds which the Inspector-General, in accordance with the charge entrusted to Em, had accumulated for debt service:
He had no option but to refuse the advance, thus plicing himself and the Inspectorate between the enesefires of Southern and Northern
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.