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312 Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, Industry & Commerce of Kiangsu. Later he was transferred to the same post in Fengtien. Mr. Hsiung was the principal assistant of General Chao Erh-hsun when the latter was Viceroy of Manchuria. In September 1910 he received the appointment to be Acting Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in Hupei. But very soon he returned to Mukden where he held several important positions at different times, the highest being that of the Principal Finance Commissioner of Manchuria and that of Salt Commissioner of Fengtien. At the time of the Wuchang outbreak, October 1911, Mr. Hsiung was Finance Commissioner at Mukden. Subsequently he went south and joined the Tutuh of Kiangsu. Later he went to Hunan and became chairman of the Republican Committee of that province. In March 1912 Mr. Hsiung was appointed Minister of Finance in the first Republican Cabinet headed by Tang Shao-i. He was responsible for the conduct of the loan negotiations with the International Banking Group, for the First Reorganization Loan from the time of his arrival until he resigned in June 1912 after Premier Tang had given up the premiership. Mr. Hsiung, however, continued to be employed by the government in the capacity of Chief of a Commission for the negotiation of foreign loans. It was he who was mainly responsible for negotiating the Crisp Loan. Subsequently Mr. Hsiung was appointed Tutung or Lieutenant-General of Jehol. The appointment was interesting in view of the fact that he had never held a military position before. He remained at Jehol until July 1913. Mr. Hsiung was appointed Prime Minister on July 31, 1913. In September he was given the concurrent post of Minister of Finance. These positions he held until February 1914: In May 1914 Mr. Hsiung was appointed a member of the Tsan Chen Yuan, the Advisory Council of the late President Yuan Shih-kai. At the same time he was appointed Director-General of the National Oil Administration which was organized for the purpose to undertake the development of petroleum resources in China in cooperation with the Standard Oil Company of New York. As the expedition to Shensi and Shansi failed to discover oil of a commercial quantity the Administration was dissolved in December 1916. In 1917, the year a big flood occurred in Chihli inundating part of the Port of Tientsin, Mr. Hsiung was appointed Director-General of the Flood Relief and Conservancy. He was mainly responsible for the formation of the Chihli River Commission, of which he was made President. In the capacity of the Director-General, Mr. Hsiung signed the agreement with the American International Corporation for a $6,000,000 loan for the improvement of the Grand Canal. He later became Director General of the Grand Canal Improvement Board. In December 1918 Mr. Hsiung was awarded the Third Order of Merit. In May 1919 he was ordered to hold concurrently the post of director general of Famine Relief in Hunan Province. In March 1920 Mr. Hsiung received the First Class Wenfu Decoration. In May 1920 he was relieved of the three aforementioned posts: Flood Relief and Conservancy; Grand Canal Improvement; and Hunan Famine Relief. Following in the wake of the 1921 flood the refugees driven to despair by the famine were abandoning their children on the roadside or selling them to the highest