THRUSTING MONEY UPON CHINA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14013, 18 September 1909, Page 5

THRUSTING MONEY UPON CHINA.

; In international relations, as ono i fill lor leiuarks, a loan is thicker than | water — a tact which explains Uncle Sum's emulous generosity when he saw Great iirituin, France, and Germany lending, money to China to help her 1 build her railroads. While our newspapers are wide awake to the diplomatic incident, many of them are also conscious of the comic side of the picI ttiro presented when our State Department intervenes to insist that the i Chinese Government accept tho mil- ! lions held out to it by a syndicate of New York capitalists. "The rush ef the nations up to bewildered China ' with the announcement that she really must horrow money from each of them scarcely appears like a scene from real life," exclaims the. New York Evening Post, u lnch finds the sense of unreality increased by the vision of. ''thrifty j and close-fisted Uncle Sam" Buddenly awakening to the fact that he, too, "had a right to force some of his hardearned dollars upon the Chinese." l.'li ma's trade, remarks the Detroit Free Press, is going to mean much to the world very soon, and meanwhile "we guess we Cft n lend her money if we want to." The same paper adds the reminder that if we are somewhat , insistent with our proferred millions in this instance, we nevertheless refused to join in the opium traffic when Europe forced that upon China. I The Government's interest in a loan by private- capitalists is explained in lilunt undiplomatic language by the I Salt Lake Herald: "The whole ques- | tion <>f commerce is involved, andunI less this country possesses sufficient leverage in the way of financial obligations tho trade of the Celestial Empire will bo controlled by the three European Powers putting up the money for Chinese bonds and .thereby acquiring a sort of proprietary interest in. China." China, says the Brooklyn Standard Union, is "the great uncut commercial melon of the world;". and the Philadelphia Press asserts that "more railroad mileage will be built there in tlie next twenty-five years than in all the rest of the world put together." Yet at tho present moment qur trade with China is in anything but a fkrar- ; ishing condition. Moreover, about £27,0)0,000 of European capital, acI cording to the Baltimore American, ' has already found its way into this ! field of investment in which the United ■ States is practically unrepresented. ; "The difficulty of thi» country in the j past in seeking to make its position ' felt," adds the same paper, "has been j due to the indebtedness <of the Chinese -to the -Powers of Europe." Another point emphasised by the Savannah News and other papers ,i» thai the countries lending the money to finance •' China's railroads will have a voice- in providing engineers to build them, and in the placing of orders for material. • The immediate cause of afi this newspaper discussion was the successful intervention of Secretary Knox to obtain for a New York syndicate-^ consisting of the National City Bank, the First National Bank, Kuhnj: Loeb and Co. t and J. P. Morgan and Co. — _ the privilege of participating in a loan of £5,500,000 for the construction of tho Hankow-Saechuen Railroad. The purpose of the syndicate does not stop , at this, however, but contemplates, according ' to Bradstreet's, a general entry into the field of Chinese investment. In addition to itfc^communications to the Chinese Government in behalf of this syndicate, the State Department has' issued a public statement endorsing the plan. To quote in part : "The- Gavecnmemt . ef; Hie tfnited States is much gratified at the formation of a powerful and responsible/ Ame- ' rican .financial group to enter the important field of investment in Chins, and is giving to their enterprise, that cordial support which- the Department of State stands ready to give all legitimate and beneficial American commercial and financial undertaking, in foreign countries. Such Undertakings are to be encouraged because of their direct benefit to American commerce and to international relations." This 'course on the partof Secretary Knox, based on the theory that where American capital is employed in bank- j ins and investments American trade \ will naturally follow-,' is hailed by some i of the Washington correspondents as "marking a new epoch in our diplomacy." Hitherto, says The Wajl Street Journal, Our policy of the "open door" in China has meant tha« we held it open for the others to enter. The Boston Herald, emphasising the sarnie point, remarks that our Government's ' fear of entangling foreign' alliances accounts for its previous slowness to co-operate with private enterprise in advancing commercial dominion. It goes on to Bay: "It is essential, if the open door in the Orient is to bo maintained^ for the unprejudiced entrance of American goods into the Chinese market, that soino substantial block be set against the door to prevent its chance' closing. And nothing would be more effective for that purpose than this establishment of an American financial interest." M The Cincinnati Times-Star, which belongs to a brother of the President and should therefore be in touch with the Administration's point of view,- regards this loan incident as "the opening wedge of a much more general American participation in the affairs of the Far East." Already, it states, an Ame- j rican engineer has been appointed to a position under the Hei-Ho Conservancy ; Board at Tien-Tsin, which is engaged in tho herculean task of improving the Pei-110. Of the significance of this fact j it says: - - _ 1 "llore evidently is a new field and a

great opnoittMiity fir the young men who have graduated from our technical schools ana colleges, for China, besides planning great railways is about to undertake Va*%pa£sjpjsay projects, too. "As tbBM fewK men gain the confidence of^e^Dhfnese authorities their employers will met* and more rely on their advice. Their recommendations of American material to be used in tho building of these enterprises iirobnhly will- receive the first consideration. 'Made in America' may soon be seen frequently *ojt (Bhhwn locomotives, stationary aasoßsati and steel bridges. "If theStatJ Department at Washington has succeeded in removing tho ill-will toward America and Americans in China which resulted in a boycott on American gooda in the great Eastern Empire, it xUUdeserve all the credit that will cona «o M." gSlljl III!