893.00/10919
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson)30
In the course of dinner this evening at the new house of Mr. T. V. Soong, the Chinese Minister of Finance, the Minister stated that the Government felt quite confident of its ability to check the advance of the forces of Yen Hsi-shan and Feng Yu-hsiang31…
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Something was said about the necessity for money and Mr. Soong stated that Governor Yen of Shansi was endeavoring to get the Bank of Communications to hand over to him that portion of the customs collections in excess of the sums needed for loan service. He stated that he had already instructed the Commissioner of Customs at Tientsin to transfer the deposits of Customs collections from the Bank of Communications to a foreign bank “where the money could not be touched.”