We learn with much regret from Prince Ch'ing that a serious explosion occurred at 10 o'clock, yesterday forenoon, in the magazine of the Artillery Regiment, belonging to the Peking Field Force, commanded by the said Prince, which was followed by much loss of life and the demolition of all the buildings inside the cantonments of the said Regiment. It appeared that several officers of the said Corps were inside the magazine superintending the filling of a number of powder bags for gun charges when the explosion occurred which led to the deaths of six officers and a number of men, while many others were also badly injured. We hereby that extraordinary grants in given to the sufferers and families of the officers and men who have thus lost their lives. Although the expl howes in a certain measure sudden and unexpected, still there should not have been placed such a great quantity of gunpowder and ammunition in the cantonments where such large numbers of troops congre-ate, and in this the Prince Commanlant and his colleagues as well as the principal officers of the said artillery reyiment have been culpable and are hereby handed to the Board of War for determintion of adequate penalties, Finally, with reference to the memorial of the Commandant of the Peking Gendarmerie, who also reports concerning the said ex-made at once by that officer to find we command that investigation out whether there has been any loss of or destruction of houses outside the immediate vicinity of the said cantonments, in order that relief may also be granted to the sufferers.
RETIREMENT OF A PROMINENT OFFICIAL, (2) Chien Ying-p'u, Grand Councillor and President of the Board of Works, has again petitimed to be permitted to resign his post and return to private life offing to continued ill-health. His prayer is hereby granted and, as a further mark of our recognition of his faithful services, we command that he be granted half of the pay he has hitherto been receiving annually, for the remaining term of his natural life.
16th June.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.