The exact
language the President used was that the conditions of the loan
seemed "to touch very nearly the administrative independence of
China itself," and that a loan thus obtained was "obnoxious" to
the principles upon which the American government rests. It is to
be hoped that President Wilson's dictum will be universally
accepted after the war and that meddling in Chinese affairs will
cease.] although the rupture which had come in the previous June
as a forerunner to the Crisp loan had caused the general public to
lose sight of the supreme importance of the financial factor.
Parliament, seeing that apart from the possibility of a Foreign
Debt Commission being created something after the Turkish and
Egyptian models, a direct challenge to its existence had been
offered, raged and stormed and did its utmost to delay the
question; but the Chief Executive having made up his mind shut
himself up in his Palace and absolutely refused to see any
Parliamentary representatives. Although the Minister of Finance
himself hesitated to complete the transaction in the face of the
rising storm and actually fled the capital, he was brought back by
special train and forced to complete the agreement. At four
o'clock in the morning on the 25th April the last documents were
signed in the building of a foreign bank and the Finance Minister,
galloping his carriage suddenly out of the compound to avoid
possible bombs, reported to his master that at last--in spite of
the nominal foreign control which was to govern the disbursement--
a vast sum was at his disposal to further his own ends.
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