.• ; ■ •. a? •.>•• i?ys $ , »‘4nw • • • ..•*»••*“ V*'--.• ..-•»«*>%•* •. . f * 5'/ .ft J •... *; ■',* :>.• gg , Mitel /'O' : 'W~. i' .'• THE PROBLEM or EXCHANGE i c> -St. .. • •.../_ X, »> ^ . Ipg T his statement as to the “EFFECT OF THE WAR ON MISSIONARY EXCHANGE” IS RE¬ PRINTED FROM THE FEBRUARY 1918 NUMBER OF MEN AND MIS¬ SIONS. IT WAS WRITTEN BY HOWELL S. BENNET OF THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. •'V 3 THE PROBLEM OF EXCHANGE W * 8 ? * 8 ?~ ‘8? ‘8? ‘ 8 ? ‘V '8? %’ V T HE missions with which I am most familiar are in China, India, Japan and Arabia. There is no exchange question in regard to lands occupied by the Ger¬ mans and their allies, especially the Turks. Money is gotten to these places with the utmost difficulty and in many cases cannot be forward¬ ed at all. Any lawful way to get it there is the rule and that is bound to be expensive. In newly occupied territory, where communications have been long inter¬ rupted and it is desirable to get funds in quickly, the cost is high. A recent remittance to Bagdad, which has come to my attention, cost about eleven per cent. The large part of the expense was in getting the money from Busra to Bagdad. Better communications will greatly reduce this. Thrte General exchange is complicated with the silver question in China, India and Arabia. Japan being on a gold basis the cost of remitting can never get above the actual cost of sending the gold there. At present the price of a yen, Japanese unit of value, is fifty-one and three-eighths cents. Before the war it was about fifty cents of our money. In India there is an arbitrary stand¬ ard set by the government, a pound sterling being worth fifteen rupees. A pound sterling is now selling about ten cents less than before the war so there is a slight advantage in this arrange¬ ment. As rupees are silver the rise in that metal has been very expensive for the government. I speak of the trouble Great Britain is having with the rupee as it affects the whole situa¬ tion. If silver reaches the point where it is possible to melt rupees and sell them at a profit as bullion the British Government will lose money, conse¬ quently, Great Britain and the United Four States are working together to stabilize the price of silver by the purchase of large amounts direct from the mine owners. Chinese exchange, as previously men¬ tioned, is, at the present time, a large item of expense. China is entirely on a silver basis but, while it is necessary to pay more for Chinese silver coins, unfortunately, the coins have little, if any, more purchasing power than when they did not cost so much. Pre¬ vious to the war the Mexican dollar, a recognized unit of value in nearly all commercial transactions with China, sometimes sold as low as forty cents; that, however, is an exceptional price and the average for some years has been about forty-seven cents. A tew months ago when silver was steadily rising Mexican dollars were selling for eighty-seven cents in China and rupees were being melted into bullion in India. This was a serious situation and prompt action was taken by the British Government, which brought the price Five A of Mexican dollars down to sixty-three cents. The sixty-three cent price did not hold long, but it now looks as though the price would be stabilized at about seventy-five cents. Whereas the appropriations for the missions are usually made in gold and the mission¬ aries paid on that basis, it is now necessary to make other arrangements in China and a number of the mission boards are guaranteeing their mission¬ aries two Mexican dollars for every gold dollar of the appropriations. As this works out it takes fifteen hundred dollars gold to do the work of one thousand dollars before the war. This is a conservative figure. That part of Arabia which has been for some time under British control has much the same banking condi¬ tions as has India; however, in the interior the coin in general use is the Maria Theresa dollar or Austrian thaler and this coin is scarce. Before the war one hundred Maria Theresa dollars were equivalent to one hundred Six and thirty-three rupees. The price has been steadily rising and the thaler is now worth possibly one half more in rupees than it was three years ago. The exchange situation today is a big item of expense to the mission boards and from present indications, will continue to be bad until some time after the close of the war. Seutn I l LI m / Bp w M NATIONAL COMMITTEE NORTHERN BAPTIST LAYMEN 1207 Fifth Avenue Building New York City No. 2. Ed. 2. SOM, 2-18