The times., 1897-12-26

| conseaueIce Of the war but from the things
/ L hear and see, 1 still do not believe il.
| have seen a copy of the Belgian contract;
| it is not railroad building scheme, but
| banking scheme. The syndicate is To
| lend the ChiEese government e., 900, 900,
| which, with 3, O0O,O0O taels "a tael is
| wort about &c cents just now, that the
| Chinese gt vernment sa Us it will put into
| the same enterprise, is to be used to build
| the Peking Hong Kow Railroad. There
| are provisions to the pa ymert, the price
! Of the bonds, and ma nner of repa yment -
| and the only security offered is the road
when built If it ever is buiIt-and for the
/ nun-pa ymen: o. the interest % per cent
on principal, the taking Of the rGad, but
absolutely TO particulars as TO the ma nner
or time of foreclosure are given-and 1t
seems il credible that anyone should lend
money or such terms. AS a matter or
fact, it is common talk that the Eelgian
indicate find they cannot raise tic
money.
Tine representatives of the HoOley- Jane
son syndiC ate. four in number, are stopping
at this hotel Before they arrived cable
gram from l. ondon in the pa pers stated that
the contract had been signed. Nothing Of
the kind was true-the gentlemen ha sc now
come here to sign it. he talk is OF loan
aggregatine Gl6, 900 900, Of which nine
millions are said to he ready IN LJndon,
and fl00. coo was to be deposited by the
syndicate as sign OF good faith on signing
of the contract. 1t is also said that be
sides the security of the road twhen built.
this syndicate is To have what w5IId
amount to a second mortgage On the Gus
toms fund of China, upon which the Russo
on the Chinese government, took the first
mortgage. and this fund in a department
managed for the last quarter of a century
by distinguished EngliShmaa, Sir Robert
Hart. is the only ready asset that CHINA
has to dispose Of, for her great mineral
wealth she has a S yet refused TO use as "A
basis fol loan. The remarkable part Of
the affair is that large part of the money
lent is &C be used to pay Off the remaining
indemnity due Japan, in oIder tina: china
may save interest and rid her soil Jf the
last Japa nese soldiers, and that the various
nations should fall ON each other TO lend
China money at a little over > per cent
(the bonds are to be charged at "a OF go,
on such security.
You car iIuag gine how proud it mal<cs
the Chinese to lave all the foreign minis.
tiers begging the TsungIi Yamen to permit
their COUNT ymen to lend China mu.ley.
This hotel is a veritahle hot-bed of IN
trigue, in which all the nations are IN
cluded, to get concessions of mines or rail-
roads or to get the government to accept
a loan. The hitch in the Hooley-J a mesou
negotiations at present seems to be that
the certificat tes of deposit for the 81 90 ,020
in London banks to be handed on 70 the
government do not specify that they ire
there deposited for the purpose OF on
sumIuating this loan, and whether the
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, now the
| Russo China Bank, will accept shen n
that account. The men do not appear tc
me to be the kind Of men that w0ald be
sent If the syndicate meant business, md
from what | have heard they do not eX-
pect to effect anything-I think the " hoie
thing is q sort Of advising scheme Of
Hooley's. for which he was willing to
pay. or course, tomorrow may prove RE
wrong, but even il the contract is signed
| ii Will be worth nothing If the Chinese
want to go back on it, and, of course, the
| Chinese are wild TO get hold OF the money
get rid OF the japanese, and line their
| own pockets in the transa ction-but the
building CT railroads will be a matter OF
Indifference 10 them, and in answer To
| Pere JGviers argument about precedent,
1 might point to the Tientsin- Shan hal
wan railroad, which has been built and
operated by Ii Hung Chang for the last
| thirteen years, and yet has not suffic I'd
| to induce the rest Of China to build.
''Also, there is the imperial customs de-
partment, which alluded to before, which
| has so long been admnisted by Sir Robert
Hart, model of how government spa t.
| nous staff OF Europeans OF all ma tions, ard
| Chinese, its warves and god owns, its ships,
| lighters and even cruisers it has built {; II
| the lighthouses and set all the buoys On
| the Chinese coast; it is the best -paiddepart-
| ment. with an excellent pension system, 80
| that to be in the Gust oms' is a dist inc
! tion and a soft thing; and, lastly, it tnr-
| nisheS an eyer-ncreasing revenue TO the
| government. and the only one that ca L lie
| absolutely depended upon. Yet, with This
| excellent example before them. it has never
! occurred 90 them to exte nd the system to
| other departments, and reform them with
| the same excellent results. The basis II he
| system as demanded by Sir Robe rt Hart is
| absolute and unquestioned control of the
whoiedepartmentwit withoutany governm ,atal
| interference. Yee they have not benefit ID
| by the precedent and outside of this one
| department things are just as they alHiys
| were.
! 1.-The truth is that the whole syste n OF