One of the first acts of the Governor Ch'ang Shun, on his return to office here, has been the reinstating of Ao Ling as prefect of the city. Your readers will remember that in January 1896 Consul Hosie was sent here to investigate the strong antiforeign attitude of some of the officials, and of Ao Ling in particular, who was accused of cursing foreigners in open Court, and, contrary to the undertaking of the Peking Government, preventing the acquisition of a site for the Mission Hospital. Ao Ling, who is a relative of the Governor by marriage, was, after severe pressure had been brought to bear by our Minister at Peking, degraded and dismissed from office, never again to hold the prefectship of Kirin City. A few months after this settlement he was most audaciously re-installed as prefect of the city, and again pressure had to be brought in Peking to uphold the dignity of our country. Then he was once more dismissed, but immediately found a very lucrative post as prefect of Kuanch'éngtze. Now, after a lapse of four years, the agreement come to between our Minister and the Teungli Yamen hae been again flagrantly broken, and he has held the office of prefect of the city for several months. The matter is again being negotiated through Mr. Hosie and our Peking representatives, but slow progress, if any, is being made. This is one of the ways in which British
jovernment seems to be unable to deal is lowered la China, aad which our with satisfactorily.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.