The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-31

| Pekine May 31.-Japane refusal to i co-onerate with the quintup1e group | of bankers in turning over $5.5Oo'ooO
 Mexcan of the salt monopoly surplus
 fund to the Chinese government has i created much comment in China, ana has provoked hostile criticism rom the
 press friendly to the Yuan Shl-kal i government.
 l Sir Richard Dane, the foreign direc-
 tor of the salt monopoly, approved of
 the release of $5,5O0,000 to the Ch1nese l government and gave assurances that l such action will in way imper1 the
 interests of the five foreign powers which made the loan with the, salt
 monopoly as security. However, un- der instructions from Tol<io, the Yoko-
 hama Specie Bank in Peking has de- 1 cIined to turn over to the Chinese au- thorities $SOO,0o0 which it had depos-
 ited with it to the credit of the salt
 monopoly.
 This action on the part of Japan is i interpreted by the Chinese press as an indication that Japan desires to pre-
 vent the Peking government from get ting money at this time to put down
 the revolutionary movement in the South.
 The Picking Daily News, in discuss- ling the action of Japan, says: FAC
 tions speak louder than words. Japan
 professes friendship towards China, and is seriously perturbed if her mo-
 tives be questioned. Fortunately. the
 demands of last year need no inter preter. They speak for themselves. And so it is with regard to the recent action of the Japanese government in respect of handing over Chinese mon ey to the Chinese government. In terms of the certificate granted by Sir Richard Dane four of the five banks concerned i'm the reorganization loan dad fIaai 7fea of he surplus of Salt Revenue to the Chinese government, but the Yokohama Spe- cie Bank, under instructions from To- kio, has declined to hand over the $500, 900 deposited with it to the Chi nese loan agreement. The, action on the face of it looks decidedly un- friendly, and if the Japanese find themse1vesi less in favor here than were before, the fault can only rest with themselves, as they have been guilty of an offence which cannot be lightly eondoned/ 1 The Reorganiza.- ton Loan Agreement provides that if the Inspector General, Sir Richard Dane as it happens to be, is satisfied that there is sufficient surplus to meet the stipulated charges upon the reve- nue. the banks are authorized to re- lease the deposits lodged with them from the salt revenue and hand them over to the Chinese government For some reason or other thef Japanese government has seen fit to depart from the terms of the Loan Agreement In the opinion of Tolxio the determining authority is no longer to be Sir Rich ard Dane and his colleague on the In- spectorate General, but the Japanese government, or those who are charged with the responsibility of advising them on matters Chinese. Their ac- ton is palpably ultra wires of the Agreement. Evidently the scrap of paper theory prevails in Tokio, where agreeme ents are regarded as binding
 cording~to her statesmen, is to be a. law unto herself, and to do exactly as she pleases in China. Fortunately, the amount involved at the moment is not a large one, but the offence is not Hghtened on that account, and no fur ] ther comment is needed than the reef itaI of the fact that the other banks observed the terms of the agreement and paid over their respective quota
 Punctilious Japan, however, failed to
 do so.
 .'The inference to be drawn hardly needs to be stated. | The money be-
 longs to the Chinese government. All
 the aaafeguards which the powers pro-
 vided in their respective interests are
 satisfied, and the money should be paid
 over in full. The fact that the Jap anese alone declined to abide by the <
 they are animated by the policy which
 has been too obvious since the com
 nencement of the European war, the
 embarrassment of the Chinese gov ernment and furtherance of Japanese
 aims in this country, aims which are not in the interests of China nor in
 the interests of the powers to acknowl-
 edge.''
 The income from the salt monopoly.
 for the four montHs of December 1915,
 and January, February and March,
 1916, was $27,384,oo Mexican as : against 4,420. 900 Mexican for the
 same period twelve months earlier, an
 increase of $2,964,000 Mexican. Ac-
 cording to Sir Richard Danes state
 nent, the baIarice remaining of the
 salt funds in the hands of the groups
 bankers, all of which is surplus on
 March 31, 1916, was $19,298,OOO Mexi-
 can. The amount which the chief
 inspectors authorized to be released to the Chinese government on April 4,
 was $5,50O,0O0 All of this which was
 held by European bankers has been
 turned over, but the Japanese refused
 to follow the lead of the English, Rus sian, German and French banks. Japan's attitude towards the Ameri- can loan concluded by Lee Higginson and Company with the Chinese gov 1 ernrhent-has also been extremely hos tile. Japanese newspapers in China have criticized this loan and. the JapaA nese minister. EkiI Iaioki, has made in 1 quiries concerning it at the American i legation.
 l In discussing the American. loan, the l National Review, of Shanghai says: HIf Japan has no right to retain salt funds belonging to the Chinese gov
 ernment still less has she or anybody else a right to criticise the closing of contracts for foreign loans from other sources The loan just concluded is, on it's merits an international tran
 saction, the perfectly logical sequence 1 of President Wilson's attitude in 1913. He then refused to support the United States banking interests aff1Iiat- ed with the sextuple syndicate on the ground that the character of the tran