The banks and Legations interested in the Hukuang railway loan are pleasantly surprised -this year ws they were last year to learn that Mr. Wang K'o-ming is going to be able to redeem the coupons which fall due on December 15 (totalling £110,000) and to make an amortization payment of £25,000. The date for redemption in Peking is December 3, but the interest does not have to be palid abroad until December. Last year the Government defaulted on the Hukuang interest on December 3 and then, when the bankers had given up all hope of collecting, met all charges at something past the eleventh hour. When payment was due in Peking this year the Ministry of Finance came forward with $500,000 and announced that this was all that was available and that the bankers would have to accept it. This they refused to do but there did. not seem to be much hope of raising more, so the announcement that the charges would be met in full was good news indeed.
In, a letter to the bankers the Minister of Finance announced some days ago that the payment would be met "according to precedent out of the salt revenues." The bankers were pleased to learn that the Chinese recognized that: such a precedent had been established, but the salt administration was not so delighted because there was, no way of raising £135,000 without dipping into the $7,000,000 salt reserve which has always been jealously guarded by the "administration. If the salt were to fail to meet the charges, however, the Hukuang service would become a charge upon the Customs, a precedent which neither foreigners nor Chinese want to see established. Just how payment has been arranged is still something of a mystery but it is rumoured in Chinese financia} circles that the Customs Inspectorate has agreed to meet the charges on condition that it be made to appear that the salt is paying. In other words the Chinese bankers believe that the Salt Administration will make payment out of the reserve fund, whereupon the Customs Inspectorate will reimburse the Salt Administration. hibition Marshal Hsiao Yao-nan has telegraphed to the Government, saying that every office under his jurisdiction has been instructed to clear the province of opium in order to give no pretext to foreign Powers for further complaint.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.