It was
therefore necessary to begin the negotiations anew; and as the
rich prizes to be won in the Chinese lottery had attracted general
attention in the European financial world through the
advertisement which the Revolution had given the country, a host
of alternative loan proposals now lay at the disposal of Peking.
Consequently an extraordinary chapter of bargaining commenced.
Warned that an International Debt Commission was the goal aimed at
by official finance, Yuan Shih-kai and the various parties who
made up the Government of the day, though disagreeing on almost
every other question, were agreed that this danger must be fought
as a common enemy. Though the Four-Power group alleged that they
held the first option on all Chinese loans, money had already been
advanced by a Franco-Belgian Syndicate to the amount of nearly two
million pounds during the critical days of the Abdication. Furious
at the prospect of losing their percentages, the Four Power group
made the confusion worse confounded by blocking all competing
proposals and closing every possible door. Russia and Japan, who
had hitherto not been parties to the official consortium,
perceiving that participation had become a political necessity,
now demanded a place which was grudgingly accorded them; and it
was in this way that the celebrated six-power Group arose.
It was round this group and the proposed issue of a 60,000,000
pounds loan to reorganize Chinese finance that the central battle
raged.
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