The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-17
HOW CAN CHINA PAY?|
AN INDEMNITY OF 5000, 600, 900 To
BE FORCED BY THE POWERS.

/
Heaviest in History, There is a
Single Tux Item of the Chinese
Empire That Will be Sufficient to
Pay it; the Land Tax-OnIy One
sixth of This Tax Now Reaches the
Imperial Golfers; the Rest Goes to
| Corrupt OfhclaIs-A Foreign Com
missioner In Control Could Stop
This MISUNDERSTANDING the As
sIgnment of the Land Tax as Sc
curity Would Serve rs n Bond for
China's Good Behavior and be a
Preventive Against the Partition
of the Empire.
| New York, Feb 15.-China is to-day fac
| ing one of the heaviest indemniues ever
| imposed upon any nation. The bill of costs
drawn against her by the various nations
on account of the recent uprising against
| the missionaries, with it's consequences,
will when all the items are entered, foot
up to more than 5000, 100000. How can
| China pay 1t? There seems to be a gen.
eral impression on this side of the wo Id
that the enforcement of this claim will
plunge the Oldest Empire into hope. ess
bankruptcy. This idea is based on an I'M
| derestimate of Chinas enormous re-
sources. China is able TO pay, and taat
without imposing upon her people an APP
| probably heavier burden than they now
! bear.
Many charitable and kind-hearted peo-
! pie believe that the claims upon China
| should be limited to the actual damage
to foreign residents and foreign properly.
But this would represent no penalty at
| all for the misdeeds of the Chinese; the
| claims would be so small as to cause no
| embarrassment to China whatever, even
! though they were increased for the par
! pose of indemnifying the native Chris
tians During the whole uprising only
| about 100 foreign missionaries have lost
| their lives and If to these are added those
! who were killed in the defense OF the lega-
| tons at Pekin or injured to such an eX-
| tent that their death can be directly trac-
ed to the same cause the whole nuTnbe
| of death claims against China would III
| be represented by less than 200 lives 10 t.
1t has been fairly established by long
| lire of precedents that $4,000 is a rea-
| sonable indemnity for loss of life. Thus
! the aggregate claims against China on az
| count of the deaths of foreigners Will not
| amount to more than $5,00OOO. 1t is eX-
tremely doubtful whether the claims Tor
| the destruction of mission property wi
! exceed $1,000, 900, and certainly $5,OOJOOo
more will cover all claims on account or
the destruction of foreign property at Pc
| kin and Tien Tsin If, as suggested, this
! sum be swelfed to include an indemnity
! for the native Christians the whole claim
| AGAINST China, independent of the cost of
the military expeditions, should not be
more than S2O,0000O0.
| 1t has. however, been agreed that in
demnity shall be paid to states, as we'll
as to corporations and individuals. ard
| on this agreement are based the heavy
claims against China. If the Powers had
| been willing to limit their aims against
China 20 the actual cost of their eXpen-
ditures for the relief of Pekin, one hum
dred million dollars would easily have
covered all claims. The Russian govern
ment. whose part in the relief expedition
was second only to Japan's in size, and,
considering the distance from which the
troops were brought, and the difficulty
| under which they were sent, far more eX
pensive has stated that its total expen-
ditures on this account were less than
! ten million dollars. Certainly ten million
| dollars would cover the ac1ual expenses
of Japan, and six or eight million will
| cover the cost of our detachment in the
relief expedition The claim of no other
Power except Great Britain could posi-
| bly, be anywhere near as large as ours,
but the greed and arrogance of some of
the Powers preclUdes all possibility of
China escaping with any such payment
| Germany, who took no part in the relief
! of Pekin, has since poured in a large
force that has ravaged the province Of
PichiH slaughtering thousands of inhab-
itants and destroying millions of dollars
worth of property and for this she pro-
poses to make calm for over eighty mil
| Hons of dollars. Such a claim cannot be
justified on the score of actual damages
or expenses, even when swelled by the
enormous salaries which Germany has
| allowed to her officers and soldiers for
| this purpose. it can be based only on the
theory that punitive damages must be
| enforced for the insult to national repre-
| sentatives and for the breach of interna-
tional treaties. With Germany making a
claim of such proportions it is, of course
necessary, for the other Powers to in
crease their claims by including the same
punitive damages, in order to secure their
fair proportion of the ultimate award :;
and so II is that China is to-day facing
a bill of costs exceeded only by the enor-
nous claim made by Germany at the end
of the Franco-Prussian War, for the
purpose, as stated by Prince Bismarck of
"b 'eeding France pale
In the methods of collecting this great
indemnity the Powers are in danger of
making a blunder. 1t has been stated ill.,
the dispatches, that they would call upon
China to assign the "likin,' or transit
taxes, as security for the indemnify but
such proposition would miss the de-
sired effect. In the first place, the likin
taxes are one Of the most insignificant
sources of revenue to the Chinese govern
ment. The total receipts from them
amount 10 less than 100000 per year.
Moreover, these taxes are already as
signed as security for the last Chinese
loan, amounting to over $1,000 900, and the
A POOR BREAKFAST,