Directory_and_Chronicle_1927 — Page 598

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CHINA

which showed a deficit of $120,000,000. To meet this it was proposed to reduce military expenditure by $20,000,000 and to introduce reforms in the collection of taxes which would yield another $20,000,000. For the balance a loan was to be raised. The corruption that has marked Peking finance for the last few years was demonstrated in the spring of 1922, when Tung Kang, then acting Minister of Justice, published the conclusions of a Loan Commission which had been appointed by the Government and of which he was chairman. As the result of these disclosures, Mr. Tung was appointed Minister of Finance, but, there being no money in the exchequer, he was as unsuccessful as his predecessors. Hence, another commission was formed, known as the Commission for the Study of Financial Problems, over which Dr. Wellington Koo presided, for the discussion of ways and means whereby a fundamental re-organisation of China's finances could be effected.

To date the most complete statement of China's financial position is contained in the report by Dr. Lo Wen-kan prepared at the end of 1922. According to that report, which accompanied the Twelfth year Budget, the domestic loans as they stood in September, 1922, were $208,400,000 with security, and $249,000,000 without security; while the foreign loans amounted to $1,029,000,000 secured and $240,000,000 unsecured, making a total of $1,726,400,000.

The Chinese people have money, and if they can be made to have confidence in the promise of their rulers, ready cash to any amount, and even to the extent of paying off the national debt of China at one time, might be forthcoming.

The Maritime Customs and the Salt Gabelle are the only two sources of revenue for which exact figures are so far a vailable. The Customs receipts for 1925 amounted in round numbers to Hk. Tls. 70,725,667, as compared with Hk. Tls. 69,595,131 in 1924, Hk. Tls. 63,504,251 for 1923, and Hk. Tls. 59,359,194 for 1922, the highest on record up to that time. In his review of the trade for 1925 the Statistical Secretary of the Chinese Maritime Customs writes: "The Shanghai incidents of the 30th May, with their counterblast in the South, bade fair to paralyse trade; but the strike and boycott movements were soon restricted to certain centres only, and what could not be shipped or imported through Shanghai or Canton found its way in many cases through neigh- bouring ports or through other large seaports, such as Tientsin. Exception being made for the southern and, principally, the West River ports, the Shanghai incidents were but a temporary set-back to trade in general."

AREA AND POPULATION

China proper, extending over 1,335,841 square miles, is divided into eighteen provinces. Considerable trouble and care were taken in 1919 by the Postal Administra- tion to obtain an estimate of the population of China. Recourse was had to the assist- ance of the provincial officials, which in most cases was willingly accorded. Below are given the results obtained. These, while they cannot be regarded as accurate, may be taken as a close approximation to actual figures. The footnote will show the limitations that have so far been imposed to a full record of the outlying districts:-

Area,

Province.

Area, square miles

100,000

55,984

218,533

146,718

81,653

75,290

125,483

67,954

67,180

1,532,819

363,000

Population

Province.

square miles.

Anhui

54,826

Kwangtung...

Chekiang

36,680

Chihli

115,830

Shantung..

Szechuen

Fukien

46,332

Yunnan....

Hunan

....

83,398

Shansi

Hupeh

71,428

Shensi

Kiangsi....

Kiangsu

Kwangsi

69,498

Kansu

.....

38,610

Honan

....

77,220

Kweichow

Total......

Manchuria (Chinese estimate)

...

Population

.....

Peking District.......

Chihli Shansi Honan

4,014,619

Hunan

.....

30,172,092

Kiangsi

11,080,827

Kiangsu

....... 30,831,909

Shanghai

28,443,279 24,466,800 28,235,864 5,550,200