CO129-365 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1910 [1-3] — Page 109

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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