Quite recently, however, Sir Francis Aglen, who has been importuned often enough to do something for the "96-million" and who had come to look upon it as next for security when the amortization of the consolidated Toans had been completed, conceived the idea that if the Govern. ment and the Chinese bankers were really so very eager to see "the 96-million" put on a firm footing, he could undertake the service at once if the bankers could advance the money for the first two years' interest, He therefore wrote a confidential letter to Mr. Chang Chi ao of the Bank of China, who is Chairman of the Peking Bankers' Association, saying that it would impossible for him to take up the service of the "96-million" with the Customs surplus as security until 1928, but that if the bankers eared to club together and put up $4,500,000 a year for two years, he could undertake the full service of the "96-million" at once and then, in 1928, assume the burden of the fice and of the redemption of their advances as well.
The necessity for keeping this offer secret so that it might not arouse false hopes and promote wild speculation is obvious; but it must also be obvious that even Mr. Chang Chin-a0 could not pledge himself to raise $9,000,000 without talking about it. He could not pledge his colleagues to the advance without consulting them and, however much he enjoined secrecy, such matters can never be kept secret in a Chinese community—not even in a banking community. It was inevitable, therefore, that the story should lenk out, la various ganted forms, that' Sir Francis. Aglen had promised the Bank of China that he w: pared to assume full resper for the service of the 96-million Joan from January 1, 1926, Such yarns were widely circulated through every possible means of communication and the effect upon the market price of the "96-million" bonds was of course electric. The banks seized on them with avidity, worked their usual propaganda. overtime, and they ran up and down the scale like a barometer on the skirts of a typhoon, while the individual investor looked on in a state of bewilderment, With China at her lowest ebb politically, with Peking obviously bankrupt and with the Salt surplus reduced virtually to nil, these outcast Salt surplus bonds were elbowing their way into the company of the moat respectable Chinese securities and then felling back ten points at a time, only to renew the charge and come to the front again.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.