One of the first official acts of H.E. Nich Chih-kuei, the new acting Governor of this province, vice Lu Ch'uan-lin en route for Peking "to save the Emperor," was to issue, according to a Soochow dispatch, within three hours of In Oh'uanin's departure from that city, a long and strongly worded proclamation to the people of this province warning them from disturbing the peace, attacking churches and missionary property, and" harming foreigners as a whole. The proclamation winds up with the warning that the acting Governor is not like some officials who merely issue proclamations without seeing, them obeyed. H.E. is one "who warns and then immediately acts, that is summarily decapitates all who' may disobey his commands." It may be pertinently added here that Lat Ch'uan-lin's proclama tions in this connection were as milk and ater as compared with those issued by Viceroy Liu K'un-yi and the present acting Governor Nieh, who, by the way, is a Hunanese and fellow provincial of the Viceroy, as well as a son-in-law of the famous' first Marquis Tseng Kuo-fan. Lu Ch'uan-lin is a Shensi man and although having always had a reputation as an honest and clean-handed official is still strong Conservative and a member of the Northern clique represented by Kang Ping-hong, amongst civil mandarins, and Tung Fu-hsiang, amongst the military men.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.