The Governor of Anhui represented to the Emperor last autumn that there was unusual need of precautions because of the meditated outbreaks of banditti in the different provinces along the Yangtze; and, as he had not sufficient soldiers for any extra service, he begged permission to enroll an additional force of " thousand men. Leave todo this having been granted, he sent an officer to Yingehou Fu, Pochou, and other districts in the north of the province, where they speedily enlisted the number required, and brought them back to Nganking. The memorialist having inspected the recruits found them all to be sturdy young men, who would form excellent material, ight hundred them he has formed into two battalions, which will be stationed at points on the of Kuangtung. Another officer, Ch'en Kuo-chun, happened to be in Kuangtung on and a telegram was despatched to him, asking him to send Wang Ting-chih back to Foochow with all speed. He replied that he had telegraphed to a friend at Canton and had got an answer saying
certain day just before the end of the year. that Wang ha Bre had died there on a When this was told to the Governor General, he wrote to the high authorities in Canton, to ask them to find out if it were true. In due time a reply came saying that enquiries had been made at Haik'ang, where Wang T'ing-chih lived. According to a deposition given by his servant, he had been ill at Canton, and not getting better had left for his home on the day on which he was said to have died: Ch'en Kuo-chun therefore had evidently mistaken the telegram. Under these circumstances the Governor General at Foochow can only request that Wan T'ing-chih may be cashiered, after which the memorialist will request the Canton authorities to send him as a prisoner to Foochow for trial.—Granted.
15th April.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.