The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1914-04-18
new Chinese GOVERNMENT IS
falling BIG FINANCIAL CRISIS

corrupt and antiquated eastern one
which the country knows.
Yuan-Shi-kai's government has
fallen back on the old Manchu sys-
tenn of giving the governor (formerly
the viceroy) orders to N to the
capital certain definite amounts, leaV-
ing the governor to collect as he can
sufficient above the required sum 10
pay his PROVINCES expenses, includ-
ing the cost of his provincial army,
and what sums he chooses to take
as his own personal compensation.
But even this plan hitherto has
failed, for the central government
has not been able to the pres
tige and power which the Manchus
held, feeble as they were. The AS
ISOLATED Press correspondence from
Picking has shown how the so-called
modern army refused to fight the
Mongol tribesmen within the prov
ince of the capital, Chilli, itself; and
how, when disbanded, the troops join
brigand bands, one of which, in the
province Immediately south of Chill,
numbers, it is calculated, over 5000
men,.
Except where foreigners are given
control or a measure of it-as in the
case of the extensive salt tax, the
Salt Gabelle, the government is able
to collect little in the Way of reve-
nues. Yuan-Shi-kai might employ
more foreigners and put them in au-
thority, but the men Immediately
around him, as we'll as he himself,
have given continued proofs of their
unwillingness to give authority to
foreigners.
THE men in high positions around
the president are all of the old
school, almost every one having been
high officials under the Manchus;
and it is generally understood in
China that i was the Chinese n
not the Manchus who most opposed
the entry of the foreigner. The OPP
position to foreigners, however, eX-
lists not only in the presidents pal
ace. Whenever the presidential gov
eminent negotiates with foreigners,
in making loans, granting conces-
sions, or any other business in which
there might be squeeze or the sur
render of authority in any form, a
noisy opposition rises. And in view
of the feebleness of the government
and the danger of employing the
army, such eXcitements have to be
curbed and controlled by diplomacy.
in very recent years, the Szechuan
outbreak, which was the beginning Of
the anti-Manchu rebellion, having
been created on the cutlery against
tie Hukwan railway contract.
In desperation the government is
now endeavoring to obtain another
large loan from the Q%uintuple Group
of Bankers, composed of French,
German, British, Japanese and Rus
sian banks, supported by their re-
spective governments. 1t will be re-
membered that last years $4,000, 600
pounds loan was the cause of a con
siderable outbreak among parlia-
mentary members against Yuan Shi-
kai and was one of ths prominent
causes of the rebellion of last sum-
mer. Feeling hat Yuan's govern
ment is too d~isorganized and unsta-
BILE to trust with another large loan,
the Quintuple Legations are requir-
ing the banks to stipulate what
amounts to foreign control of China's
finances for a period of, it is stated,
fifty years, as a condition of any
further extensive borrowing.
Up to the present the government
has refused this condition, and is
getting along as best it can with
small loans at high interest, parts Of
which are sometimes taken out in
arms, ammunition and other neces-
stiles of the ministries. Sometimes
railway and other concessions are
granted for such uncontrolled loans.
But it is believed that the day of
reckoning will soon arrive.