The general then touched on the criticisms that Hat been made, because the new government lacked a State head and other organs, such as those of diplomacy, finance and defence. Such criticism was not really justified, he pointed out, for the present government was only a temporary organization and had the advantage of being cheap and simple and met the immediate requirements very well. A more elaborate, formal government would be set up at some future date, when conditions appeared 10 warrant it. The general was very satisfied with the financial outlook for the new government, because it expected to draw $120,000,000 an-unally from the Tientsin Customs revenue and the Salt Gabelle. This was more than enough.
Tu the former bad days, under the unpopular Kuomintang government, all this money had been squandered on useless soldiery. But the, new; government would have no army to support—at most a few thousand Pence Preservation Corps men—and all the money would be spent solely for the good of the people. He felt, moreover, safe in assuring foreign ut correspondents, although it was not really within his sphere, that the new government would undoubtedly take over the foreign and domestic loan services and. would also respect all treaties. with the foreign Powers, even those covering extraterritoriality rights,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.