Turning to that part of China' secured indebtedness, represented by' foreign loans amounting to £85,000,- (000 sterling of which Great Britain's: share is £83,000,000, those contracted by China with British banks and financial syndicates have been of two (1) Fiscal, é¢, loans for debt eon-solidation, such as those contracted in connexion with the War Indemnity due to Japan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5, pending payment of which Japan held strategic points in China, and for the reorganization of Government] finances in 1912-13 after the revolu-jon 1911 which gave birth to the, Chinese Republic.
(2) Industrial or productive, for the construction and development Jof Government-owned public enterprises such as railways, In the outstanding British secured debt of $33,000,000, these classes are represented approximately in the following proportions:
War EST secant} mr emt 40 per cent, seal Loans subsequently the Boxer Indemnity, wore specifically secured on the only source of Chinese Government re-Venue then available for hypothecation, namely the Maritime Custom: which—since the great Taiping Re-Dellion in the middle of the 19th eentury—has been placed by the Chinese Government under the administration of an international service organized by the late Sir Reber Hart.
The efficiency of this servies, stiff. ed by Commissioners of Customs and subordinates of many nationalities in the various Treaty Ports, has enabled the Chinese Government to keep faith with Londholers of loans secured on this source of revenue; and so long as the collection and control of Customs revenue by these foreign employees of the China Government is not interfered with there is no ground for questioning the safety of loans issued on this security. It may be added that in offering the Customs revenue as security for the loans
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.