'12th Sept. Arrer thirteen days' delay during which the expenses of the Sin Fokien have been running on, and a series of melodramatic threats on the part of the Commissioner of Customs at Chinkiang, as to his intention to disable the steamer's engines, remove her steering-gear, and sink her with the guns from the forts, the Commissioner has been brought to inform the charterers, Messrs. Bennertz Ao,, that the steamer is confiscated for a breach of the River Regulations, What the breach is, he still declines to state. 'I'he only possible pretext is that the Sin Fokien on her way from Chefoo to Hankow with a cargo of Chinese troops, who were in a state of mutiny as usual, did not stop at Chinkiang on her way up,- when the stoppage would probably have led to an attack on the European officers by the troops, who are furious when their voyage is delayed. Ihe Sin Fokien, however, duly stopped and reported on her way down, when she might easily have passed through the port without stopping. We understand that a similar slowness to that of the Chinkiang Commissioner has been shown by the Yaotai here, except when he made through his legal advisers his pre-pesterous claim of Ils, 100,000 for the loss of the steamer, but H.M.'s Consul Mr, Jamieson is taking up the question vigorously, and the whole matter will have to be explained, and reparation made by the Chinese for their arbitrary action, unless the explanation is satisfactory.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.