A Soochow letter states that a rumour has reached that city from Wuhu to the effect that three clerks belonging to the telegraph station in that city hnd been summarily executed at Nganking on the Lith instant. The story is that the four clerks, two of whom are natives of Soochow, had been bribed by rebel sympathisers at Wuhu to delay sending to Governor Tang, at Nyanking, certain important telegrams from the disturbed districts praying for aid, in consequence of which many villages had plundered by the rebels and the Imal troops defeated in two engagements, losses which could have been avoided had the telegrams in question been forwarded to the Goremor of Anhui the moment they had been received at Wuhu from Ltichou. The delay was discovered after the return of the Commanders of the defeated troops, and upon investigation by special deputies of the Governor the clerks who received the telegrams asking for help could not satisfactorily explain the delay in forward. ing the messages to Nyanking. One clerk then turned State's evidence and revealed the whole conspiracy, whereupon all four were sent under guard to Nganking and three of them had to pay the penalty of their treason with their lives—none of them being over 24 years of Regarding the above, which we give with all reserve, it is not out of place to refer to the small salaries paid by the Imperial Chinese Telegraphs to their Jerks,—generally less than $10 a month, the head clerk of an office getting less than $50. Under such circumstances, an offer of a bribe, particularly at China New Year time, might exert a powerful influence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.