The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-18
Standard Oils Investment In China
Satisfactory To The Go0ernn1ent

lines. one of them to be as long as the
Pennsylvania line between st. Louis and
Philadelphia. The equipment and all of
the material needed for the construction
of these roads will be bought of French
firms and there is no doubt that this
was a condition precedent to the nego-
tiation of the loan. Contracts of that
kind will undoubtedly furnish very large
business for French manufacturers which
will cover a period of years.
The Standard Oil company in one sense.
although payment was in the form of a
loan, bought of China the right to search
for. survey and exploit the oil fields of
northern China, some of which are re-
ported to be very rich. Preliminary to
the exploiting of these deposits, a cor
poration which win have charge both of
this work and of the surveying of the
oil fields will be organized In this cor
poration China as nation and some
of the Chinese people will be associated
with the Standard Oil company of the
United States, which is to be the creator
of the organization and is to stand spon-
sor for it. There seems TO be no doubt
of the accuracy of this report since in
centers in Washington to the effect that
in return for important oil concessions
IN north China to the Standard Oil COM
pany this company had negotiated a loan
with China aggregating s15,0oo,0oo.
Apparently France has negotiated a
loan of s120,00o,Oo0 in return for which
China makes exclusive contracts with the
managers of French industries for the
supply of material and equipment which
the construction n Iurax In
entail
Washington Is Pleased
Intimations from Washington are to the
effect that the administration is pleased
that American capital and one OF the
greatest of American corporations should
have succeeded in completing negotiations
with China whereby very important in
dustries will be established in the north
ern provinces of that republic This con-
tract has been negotiated within a year
after the new administration at Wash
ington withdrew the moral support Of
the government from the American bank
Ing syndicate which participated in the
negotiation for a $500, 600 600 loan with
China In which the so-called six-nation
group was concerned. The negotiation is
regarded at Washington as showing that
a great commercial undertaking of this
kind can be entered into by American
cdplIdl anu an american corporation with
China without involving In any way the
moral support of the government The
incident is undoubtedly regarded in
Washington as confirming the view taken
by the administration last spring that it
is not necessary to secure government
support of American commercial and
trade undertakings with China.
No one doubts that large investments
will be made in China of American capi-
tai which will have the support fipan-
cial and moral, of the Chinese govern
ment. 1t is understood that American
capital will be invested in very important
improvements of rivers in China so that
navigation by large boats between the
seacoast and the interior can be obtained
So also the presumption is strong that
the contracts negotiated by Charles NJ.
Schwab with China in the interest of the