104
His Excellency, but was always met with the reply that the
coinage was needed for the two Kwang Provinces under his
Administration, that there was no indication that it was
in excess of requirements, and that no complaints of any
kind had reached him. He regretted that it should prove
an inconvenience to Hongkong, but could not subordinate
the needs of his own Provinces to suit our convenience.
6.
There appeared at this time to be
some prospect of an amelioration of the evils of which we
complained. His Excellency Tang Shao Yi, who was reputed
to be one of the ablest of Chinese Statemen, was under-
-stood to have proceeded to Europe and America primarily
A was belicord andj
in order to study this question, and that on his return he
would submit a scheme of financial reform, China at the
same time was pressing for the sanction of the Powers to
an increase in her Import Duties and Great Britain and the
United States of America had made their assent conditional
on a currency reform. It appeared to me that the ever
increasing indebtedness of China to gold using countries,
together with the decrease in her revenue due to the
suppression of Opium, must force her to adopt financial
reforms which should satisfy the Powers whose assent was
necessary to the increase in the Import Duties. The
pressure