Extract from letter of date 26th June 1896, Talak (29K)... "I write now to tell you of the misery we are passing through here. These last few months the robbers have become very bold they have gathered at a place Ta-peteng (% MPI) about 20 li from here. They have continually been committing burglary and plunder in the villages. They have even came into this market town six or seven times in succession, committing housebreaking. They have even broken into. Japanese shops, and it is reported that they-are arranging to kill the Japanese magistrates, "-When the authorities heard of this,.they sent out twenty or thirty soldiers to go into the mountains and surround the robbers. This was on the 13th of June. They were, however, attacked by the robbers who killed two or three of them, some say four or five, and wounded five or sia others. It is reported that there are over 1,000 of these robbers in the mountains of whom four or five hundred were engaged in the fight with the Japanese oldiers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.