For China, instead of being nearly bankrupt as so many have asserted, has, thanks to the new scale of indebtedness which the war has established, become one of the most debt-free countries in the world, her entire national debt (exclusive of railway debt) amounting to less than 150 millions sterling, or seven shillings per head of population, which is certainly not very terrible. No student who has given due attention to the question can deny that it is primarily on the proper handling of this nexus of financial interests, and not by establishing any artificial balance of power between foreign nations, that the peace of the Far East really hinges. The method of securing national redemption is ready-made; Western nations should use the Parliament of China as an instrument of reform, and by limiting themselves to this one method secure that civil authority is reinforced to such a point that its behests have behind them all the wealth of the West. In questions of currency, taxation, railways and every other vexatious problem, it is solely by using this instrument that satisfactory results can be attained. [Footnote: We need only give a single example of what we mean. If, in the matter of the reform of the currency, instead of authorizing trade-agencies, i.e. the foreign Exchange Banks, to make a loan to China, which is necessarily hedged round with conditions favourable to such trade-agencies, the Powers took the matter directly in their own hands; and selecting the Bank of China--the national fiscal agent--as the instrument of reform agreed to advance all the sums necessary, PROVIDED a Banking Law was passed by the Parliament of China of a satisfying nature, and the necessary guarantees were forthcoming, it would soon be possible to have a uniform National Currency which would be everywhere accepted and lead to a phenomenal trade expansion. It should be noted that China is still on a Copper Standard basis,-- the people's buying and selling being conducted in multiples of copper cent-pieces of which there has been an immense over-issue, the latest figures showing that there are no less than 22,000,000,000 1-cent, ten cash pieces in circulation or 62 coins per head of population--roughly twenty-five millions sterling in value,--or 160,000 tons of copper! The number of silver dollars and subsidiary silver coins is not accurately known,--nor is the value of the silver bullion; but it certainly cannot greatly exceed this sum. In addition there is about 15,000,000 pounds of paper money. A comprehensive scheme of reform, placed in the hands of the Bank of China, would require at least 15,000,000 pounds; but this sum would be sufficient to modernize the currency and establish a universal silver dollar standard. The Bank of China requires at least 600 branches throughout the country to become a true fiscal agent. It has today one-tenth of this number.]