The President of the Board of War and his colleagues complain bitterly of the sbyear.
The delays which have been experienced in the receipt of these returns have formed the subject of successive Decrees issued during the last quarter of a century, none of which seem to have had any real effect. Nearly all the provinces are many years in arrear in this respect, the worst offender being Chibli, whose last return was sent in 1856. The Board points out that the matter is one which is intimately connected with the question of army reform and expresses a hope that the Emperor will issue an order under which the return for act year is to be supplied within three soonihn.—-Deoree tented separately,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.