Tre tortured cook of Mr. Wu Kuei-fung the furniture dealer in the Nanking Road whose premises were recently burnt down, has been released from prison in the City on making a kind of confession, to the effect that when he woke up the place was on fire and he could not tell where the fire originated. We mentioned on Friday that the police here thought that it did begin in the furniture shop; but we learn from the fireman who was first on the spot that when he got there one of the inside houses was on fire, and the furniture shop was still intact. Meantime the Canton Guild here and the father of the furniture dealer are determined to have full repay ration from the City magistrate for his unjust dealing with the dealer and his cook, and for the illegal torturing of the latter. They have laid the whole matter before the Provincial Treasurer (Fanta) at Soochow, H.E. Teng Hua-hsi, who is himself, fortunately for them, a Cantonese, and it is to explain this matter to the best of his ability that the Taotai, H.E. Nieh, has gone to Soochow, having left for the provincial capital on Friday night. We have already mentioned that an imperial edict prohibiting the use of torture appeared in the Peking Gazette only three or four weeks ago, and it is therefore likely to go hard with the City magistrate, who is a thoroughly old-fashioned official, of the most obstructive type. All foreigners as well as Chinese will have reason to thank the Canton Guild if their efforts on behalf of their compatriot result in the discontinuance of the use of torture on untried prisoners in the City, and it is only surprising that so comparatively enlightened a man as T'aotai Nieh has not long since prohibited it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.