The acting Governor of Turkestan re-rts the following case of accidental shooting. The soldiers in the garrison of K'u-erh-ka-la-wu-ssu were taken out to target practice one day towards the end of last year: and were given five rounds of The following morning a number of then ammunition made up in paper parcels. were practising firing black cartridges in the garrison enclosure when one of the officers entered the premises and suddenly fell down as if shot. On examination it was found that one of the soldiers had mixed the parcels containing the powder and shot with those containing only the powder, and had by using one of the former, been the cause of the present accident. He himself discovered the mistake immediately be felt the force of the discharge and his only excuse was that inthe confusion of the moment he had picked up the wrong packet. He was sent to the civil authorities for trial and punishment, but before his ease could be dealt with, he swallowed a dose of opium from the effects of which he expired a few days later. His commanding atticer who is held to have been guilty of neglect both in ig to discover the mistake and in afterwards allowing him to commit suicide is handed over to the Board for the determination of a fitting penalty, and it is suggested that posthumous honours should be awarded to the deceased on the same scale as if his death had been due to active service in the army.—Referred to the consideration of the Board concerned.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.