CHINA'S LITTLE CHEQUE.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 458, 14 July 1898, Page 4

CHINA'S LITTLE CHEQUE.

A RECORD PAYMENT. There was an important little meeting in the parlor of the Hank of England last Saturday morning, wrote a London correspondent on 20th May. The Governor and several directors met to receive two secretaries from the Chinese Embassy and two .from the Japanese Legation, the London manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and the sub-manager of the Hong Kong Banking Corporation, who visited the bank in order to assist at the final settlement of Japan's little bill against China over the late war. In this bank parlor many renowned financial transactions have been carried through,, but none have necessitated the drawing of cheques for such colossal amounts as those which changed, hands on Saturday. After certain .formalities ...had been completed, the representative of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank handed over the Chinese Minister .a cheque for £11,008,857 16s 9d sterling, being the largest ever drawn by. any banking institution in the world. The cheque was formally handed to the custody of the Bank of England, and placed to the credit of tbe Chinese Government. The money, however, did not long remain to the credit of Pekin, for the representative of Chiua proceeded to draw the biggestchequeon record— namely, £12,500,000 sterling — in favor of. the Japanese Government. This payment concluded the final settlement of the indemnity claim made by Japan on China. Larger sums than £11,000,000 and £12,500,000 have had on one or two occasions to be met, but in instalments. Cheques of such magnitude as those drawn have never before been seen, not even in connection with the gigantic transactions in .which the house of Rothschild has played no unimportant part. The cheque paid to the Japanese shows a sum of £1,500,000 over and above the amount handed bver by the Hong Kong Bank, but this extra sum, it is explained,was paid out of an account .of the Chinese Government at the Bank of England, and was for an amount due on a previous instalment of the indemnity.