Chou Ta-wu, the Commander-in-of Kansu, adverts to a system whi vails toa very serious extent of military officers forging commissions and obtaining employment in provinces where theirantecedents are not accurately known. He himself conducted a long series of campaigns during the late reign and had occasion to issue a large number of commissions of which no accurate returns were sent tu Peking durin those troublous times, It has come to his knowledge that many of these documents have got into the hands of people who are not entitled to make any use of them and that forged seals and forged documents purporting to have been issued by him are continually being presented as a means of obtaining military employment. In not a few instances that have come under his notice the original holders have long been dead, and their relations have either made use of the papers themselves or have sold then to others, An inquiry sometimes shows that the actual holder could not have been more than ten years of age when he performed the feats for which the certificate wasissued. To put an end to such flagrant abuses the memorialist has drawn up a code of rules by which he asks that all Applications of the kind referred to should be tested i future.—Rescript; Let Chou Ta-tou write to the high civil and military authorities in all the provinces desiring them to institute careful inquiries on the subject.
5th October,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.