- 2.
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look at things from the aspect of our revolution and see what
kind of heritage the Past has bequeathed to us. Is it such a heritage that a new government can be built upon it? We shall
find that nothing has been left to us but debt. We owe the Foreign Powers several thousand million dollars and are indebted to the people also for a huge loan, and are now being heavily pressed for repayment. The annual customs revenue of Tls. 70,000, 000. is being used for this purpose and in addition the salt gabelle and the profits of many railways and mines are being appropriated to the same end. Yet even so some of the loans
cannot be repaid for the next several decades, and some cannot
even be totally repaid until the 61st year of the Chinese Republic (1972). All these debts are the heritage left us by
the Past.
Again a portion of these debts is represented by unredeem- able notes to the amount of millions of dollars. All these are
not in the hands of the Chinese, but some are in the hands of
This portion foreigners, particularly the Shanghai Banks.
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the notes is also part of the legacy to us of the Past.
There is another heritage left to us revolutionaries - I refer to the 300,000,000 peasants of China. For the present state of poverty of these is the result of gradual oppression
in the Past. Furthermore there are 30,000,000 workmen whose
miserable and impoverished condition is the result of what has happened in the Past. You, gentlemen, I venture to say, cannot
deny that these workmen are poor and miserable.
Now I come to the merchants. Merchants are of various degrees of wealth. Those who are worth $1,000,000 may be said to be worth very little; yet I hardly think there is anyone of you here present worth so much. Any who are worth so much have long since gone to live in the Concessions. It surprises me very much that there are still a few merchants in the Co-operat-
ive Commercial Association who have comparatively a large capital
I