first magnitude. At present China has more than a million soldiers to be disbanded. Besides, the dense population will need elbow room to move in. This Colonization project is the best thing for both purposes. The soldiers have to be disbanded at great expense and hundreds of millions of dollars may be needed for disbandment alone, in paying them off with a few months' pay. If nothing more could be done for these soldiers' welfare, they will either be left to starve or to rob for a living. Then the consequences will be unimaginable. This calamity must be prevented and prevented effectively. The best way for this is the colonization scheme. I hope that the friendly foreign financiers, who have the welfare of China at heart, when requested to float a reorganization loan for the Chinese Government in the future, will persist on the point-that the money furnished must first be used to carry out the colonization scheme for the disbanded soldiers. Otherwise, their money will only work disasters to China.
For the million or more of the soldiers to be disbanded, the district between our projected port and Dolon Nor is quite enough to accommodate them. This district is quite rich in mineral resources and is very sparsely settled. If a railway is to start at once from the projected port to Dolon Nor these soldiers could be utilized as a pioneer party for the work of the port, of the railway, of the developing of the adjacent land beyond the Great Wall, and of preparing Dolon Nor as a jumping ground for further colonization development of the great northern plain.
