Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/141

 requires reform, but a great addition of capital and the opening of five hundred new provincial offices; no such expansion can take place without expert help and the loan of a large amount of foreign capital under the direct control of the participating foreign states. The most bitter opponents of such a reform will be the privileged foreign banks which will be forced to relinquish their octopus grip on the Chinese giant—a grip which directly contributes to the present palsy in Peking. That in all these circumstances, with the prospect of the action we have outlined looming near, the pro-Japanese party in Peking (and it should be thoroughly understood that the pro-Japanese party is to-day very powerful) should have attempted just before the close of the European war to push through a so-called gold-note scheme, a project rotten to the core, but designed ultimately to make the Japanese yen the unit throughout China, is very understandable; for in the present confusion anything is feasible. That this same pro-Japanese party should also have attempted to secure the appointment of a Japanese Treasury official, Baron Sakatani, as sole controller of Chinese currency, is further proof that immediate action is necessary on the part of the interested states.