Berlin, Nov. 12 wing to an acute attack of onaul-General for" Shanghai pneumonia, the newly-appointed
Michelsen, will not be able to" assume. Kit position, ie Was expected to arrive anghai atthe end" of this yeareTrans-Ocean Kuo Min. things which Sir Frederick Maze hax said about me, T take special pride in "looking back "upon the Achievements of the Customs Ser Vice during my administration the Ministry of Finance, "The se-Venue has trebled since the attain went of tari? autonomy, and. the service has during. these' troublous: Sears maintained the high stander intogeity. which "ie hag always enjoyed.
"Upon leaving the Ministry Finance, "it willy "1 think be pertinent for me to mention certain facts which have not. been well understood. by' the" general. public the time that the. National Government "was removed to. Nan: King, "many grievances were hat-bored against. the Customs Service by' the Government and people. was said' that the" Customs had become an imperium in. imperia; that it was an adjunct of Legation Street; that the word of the Inspec for-General ad" become "law national finances; that the Tnspeefor-General had played the role of Kinge-maker to every Finance Minis at Peking; that Customs funds were deposited almost. in toto wit foreign banking institutions, "and! had served merely to builé up their strength and credit' to. the. neglect of Chinese banks; and that the higher ranks of the Service were exclusively occupied. by foreigners and were not open to. Chinese Tu consequence of these grievan con there was a decpseated desir both within and without the Government to completely. reorganise the Service. It was my belief,! however, that the political charac ter, which the Service was allowed "drift into, was not indigenous!
it, that there was sor much that Wwes sound and wholesome in the Service that the abuses or anachroncould be removed witha uring the organism itself.
The New Order has "proved well-founded."
1 am glad to say that my opinion
the Inspector-General isa. loyal servant of the Government and obeys implicitly the decisions "of the" Minister of Finance. obligations "upon China's finances est no longer with the Inspector-General but with the Minister of Finance, whose" word is final Customs collections" are made into! a powerful instrament to strengthen
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.