How long, it is asked, are we to sit quietly-and have our business stopped and our ordinary course of life upset by the strike of the Nivgpo meu, a strike accompanied with very serious intimidation? The Chinese claim to he a reasonable people, but what reason is there in west gravely inconveniencing English and American and German and other residents on this side of the Yangkingpang, because the Ningpo meu have a dispute with the French Municipality about their Joss House Aswesaid on Wednesday, any sympathy that might have been felt with the Ningpo men is being rapidly dissipated, and" it will nob require a long duration of the present condition of affairs to make the residents on this side of the Yangkingpang insist on drastic measures being taken with the men who ordered the strike. Our patience gets quickly exhausted in this weather, and should not be tried too far, It may not be possible to punish the heads of the Guild for ordering a strike, but a large proportion of those who have struck have done it unwillingly, and it is quite possible for the police to protect them against: intimidation, and it will be learnt with pleasure that something is being done in this direction.
We are glad to know that this question, which virtually is whether the Ningpo meu are to be the masters in these Settlements, was s" sidered at Wednesday's meeting of the Council, We learn that steps been taken to prevent " picketing, that some of the offenders will find they were ili-advised in carrying the war into these Settlements. hoped that the Council will be abie to convince the heads of the Ningpo Guild that they have gone too far, and that other Guilds will have no encouragement in future to fallow in the footsteps of the Ningpo combination.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.