London, and that practically the whole of the bonds there issued came
back into the hands of the representatives of Honduras.

At the end of the proceedings the whole amount of the loan seemed to
have been disposed of in London, £631,000 having been sold to Mr. L----
and passed on by him by the means described above, £200,000 having been
issued to railway contractors, £10,800 having been "drawn before issue
and cancelled," while £49,500 was "issued in exchange for scrip," and
£108,500 was taken on account of commission and expenses.

The actual cash received on account of this loan appears, though the
Committee's figures are difficult to follow, to have come to just over
half a million. Out of the half million £16,850 went in cash commission,
and £106,000 in interest and sinking fund, leaving about £380,000 for
the railway contractors and the Government. On this loan the Committee
observes that the commission paid, of £108,500 bonds, and £16,850 in
cash was "greatly in excess of what is usually charged by contractors
for loans."

So far it was only a case of a thoroughly speculative transaction
carried through by means of the usual accompaniments. A defaulting State
believed to be possessed of great potential wealth, thought, or was
induced to think, that by building a railway it could tap that wealth.
The whole thing was a pure possibility. If the loan had been
successfully placed at the issue price it would have sufficed to build
the first section (fifty-three miles) of railway, and to leave something
over for work in the mahogany forests. It is barely possible that in
time the railway might have enabled the Government to produce enough
stuff out of its forests to meet the charges of the loan. But the
possibility was so remote that the terms offered had to be so liberal