The time has
arrived when not only must the Manchu Imperial Family be removed
far from the capital but a scheme worked out for commuting the
pension-system of so-called Bannerman families who still draw
their monthly allowances as under the Manchus, thanks to the
articles of Favourable Treatment signed at the time of abdication
of 1912. When these two important questions have been settled,
imperialism in China will tend rapidly to fade into complete
oblivion.
CHAPTER XV
THE REPUBLIC IN COLLISION WITH REALITY: TWO TYPICAL INSTANCES OF
"FOREIGN AGGRESSION"
Such, then, were the internal conditions which the new
administration was called upon to face with the death of Yuan
Shih-kai. With very little money in the National Treasury and with
the provinces unable or unwilling to remit to the capital a single
dollar, it was fortunate that at least one public service, erected
under foreign pressure, should be brilliantly justifying its
existence. The Salt Administration, efficiently reorganized in the
space of three years by the great Indian authority, Sir Richard
Dane, was now providing a monthly surplus of nearly five million
dollars; and it was this revenue which kept China alive during a
troubled transitional period when every one was declaring that she
must die. By husbanding this hard cash and mixing it liberally
with paper money, the Central Government has been able since June,
1916, to meet its current obligations and to keep the general
machinery from breaking down.
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