THE LARGEST CHEQUE IN THE WORLD.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue VIII, 20 August 1898, Page 233

THE LARGEST CHEQUE IN THE WORLD.

(From the ‘Bankers’s Magazine,’.Tune.)

With the payment to Japan, last May, of a cheque for £11,008,857 16/9. together with a further £1,000,000 retained for the present by the Imperial Bank of Germany in Berlin, the entire indemnity connected with the recent war has now been paid by the Chinese Government. The aggregate sum of nearly £35,000,000 has been paid by China to Japan in a period slightly exceeding two years and a half. The various payments and dates have been approximately' as follows:—-

These payments were effected by the drawing of a number of cheques which, both separately and collectively, were l of a unique character. Larger payments have been effected before. For instance, a sum of £ 20,000,000 was paid over to Germany on 14th July, 1871, for account of the French indemnity of five milliards, but not by the simple process of handing over a cheque. The cheque of £11,008,857 16/9 paid on the 7th ult. was by far the biggeist. ever drawn upon the Bank of England—in fact there were two cheques of an exactly equal amount, one representing the transfer of the money from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to China, and the other the payment by China to Japan.] Never before, surely, has the humble penny stamp given the impress of legality’ to so gigantic a transaction, for its presence on the cheques made all the difference between £11,000,000 and a worthless scrap of paper. Needless to say, the usual profound formalities were observed in making the final payment of the indemnity. Neither of the chief representatives in this country of China

and Japan attended the bank. The Chinese Minister was indisposed, and the Japanese Minister consequently attended at the Japanese Consulate. The proceedings in the parlour of the Bank of England were nevertheless ceremonious. Besides the governor, several of the directors and the chief cashier, Mr H. G. Bowen, those in attendance included Sir Halliday Macartney, the English, and Mr T. Y. Lo, the Chinese representative of the Chinese Legation in London; two Japanese secretaries, viz., Mr Yenjiro Yamaza and Mr Chozo Koike; and Mr Geo. H. Burnett, sub-manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. After a short speech by Sir Halliday (expressing the decision of the Chinese Government to pay up in full and at once the amount of the indemnity, instead of at the extended periods permitted by the Treaty of Shimoneseki, the cheque of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank previously indorsed by the Chinese Minister was handed over to the bank authorities, then the other cheque drawn by the Chinese Minister to the order of the Japanese Ministei' was handed over to the representative of Japan, and this was subsequently’ taken to the Consulate and indorsed by His Excellency and by Mr Y. Kakai, the manager of the Yokohama Specie Bank in London, who holds a power of attorney for the Bank of Japan. The ceremony did not end here, however, for besides the indorsements of the cheques a specially drawn up receipt of portentous dimensions, embodying the due recognition by’ Japan of the complete fulfilment of her obligations by China, had to be formally’ signed. There was then a general shaking of hands and salaams, and the interesting ceremony was concluded.

31st October, 1895. in London, about £8,000,000 16th Nov., 4,900,000 8th May, 1896, Berlin, „ 4,000,000 7th „ „ in 4,000,COO 8th „ 1897, in London, „ 2,000,000 7th „ 1898, in Berlin, „ 1,000.000 7th „ „ in London, „ 11,000,000