State Economic Drives.

Russia has for some time had a five-year plan, and now China is said to have a ten-year plan. Each, it seems, is a plan to manufacture and produce to the greatest economic advantage; but China, it is said, will not favour State employership as in Russia; but rather State encouragement (cheap money, for instance) to private employers. Low interest loans for the stimulation of production are no new thing. But if the money page 11 has to be borrowed abroad, who will lend on a huge scale to a Government of whose stability there are doubts? Yesterday, the Nanking Government was challenged by the Chinese. To-day, its equilibrium is threatened by the action of Japan. To-morrow—? Patriotic Chinese hope that Japanese pressure will unite China. But hope is not always a gilt-edged security.