CO129-360 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 319

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February 1908. As regards Belgiu, Russia and

Japan, from whom tenders have also been invited by the

Chinese, no serious opposition id to be feared since it is

improbable that any of these countries, on account of their

Financial position, could float a Chinese loan of such

magnitude on better terms than Great Britain, coven allow-

ing for the prospective gains they might hope to reap by

the preferential supply of material which, it is held, would

attach to the successful negotiation of the loan.

There remains Germany. That country has recently de-

nounced the Anglo-Cerian Protocol of the 1st/2nd September

1898, which limited her sphere of interest to the north of

the Yangtaze, and is apparently determined to gain a footing

both in the Yangteze Valley and in the southern provinces of

Chins. There is, moreover, a marked change in the condition

of the German money market compared with that last year,

Germany felt herself,compelled, for financial reasons, to de-

cline participation in the Anglo-French issue of the Peking-

Hankow Hedemption Loan of £5,000,000. Money is now abundant.

A series of internal loans have recently been floated with

Germany is now in a position to make an effective

success.

When

bid for the industrial advantages in China, by which she sets

such