Wuite the gold france controversy has already produced an angry afternoon in the Peking Senate and a free fight in the Lower House, the ordinary man may be glad of a few facts on which the French contention is based. In spite of the gallons of ink that have been expended on them, they can really be put into a very small space.. Article VI of the International Protocol of September. 7, 1901, states under section a, that "These four hundred and fifty millions (of Haikuan taels, the total indemnity) constitute a gold debt calculated at the rate of the Haikuan tael to the gold currency of each country as indicated below (the rates for each country then being given). This sum in gold shall bear interest at 4 per cent. per annum etc. Capital and interest shall be payable in gold or at the rates of exchange corresponding to the dates at which the different payments fall due.
Subsequently to this protocol being signed, silver fell greatly in value, with the result that a supplementary agreement was signed in 1905, of which Prince Ching, for the Chinese Government, wrote:—''Recognizing that the sum of 450,000,000 taels constitutes a debt in gold,' and under which the Powers secured themselves of the gold equivalent of the tael stipulated for in the 1901 Protocol. There is also a record of a conversation in the Diplomatic Body, prior to the signing of the Protocol, when the Russian Minister said that he had been instructed to demand payment in gold and the French Minister said that he would present his claims in francs payable in gold. Finally it is clear that the Powers regarded the indemnity as a sum due to them all, which they would divide among themselves according to their claims. Article VI of the Protocol opens with the statement that the Emperor of China has ''agreed to pay the Powers an indemnity of four hundred and fifty millions of Haikuan Taels.'" And later it says, "'The Chinese Government shall deliver to the Doyen of the Diplomatic Corps at Peking a bond for the lump sum, which shall subsequently be converted into fractional bonds."' Finally the debt being a ''sum in gold,'' if one or more countries are paid in depreciated paper, the total delivered by
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.