In the Swatow region there reigns at present comparative quiet. Yet there is much wild and loose talk amongst the people. In the villages along the Swatow river basins there is an extensive Buddhist movement. The people call it a Buddhist movement but I doubt very much that it is. The leaders of the movement call upon the inhabitants to join. Many thousands have complied. In order to become a member a few cents are demanded. The value of his money is restored to hima in the form of a lantern and a flag. These are the tokens of his membership. The lantern would indicate that their assem-plages are to take place in the night tine. According to some accounts of the movement we hear it is a sudden outburst of devotion on the part of many people to Buddha. Yet what first strikes one is that they are by no means kind to Buddha. First of all they are not vegetarians. They cook them and eat them while their meetings! Then the composition of the members is 2 strange one: Tam told that of their membership many belong to the Triad Society, while a great proportion are Roman Catholics. These Catholics I do believe were never true members of the Roman Catholic Church. But whether they were or not they have broken off their connection with the Roman Catholics: they have renounced whatever faith they had and have joined forces with the would-be Buddhists.
4 LocaL society.
Now we have in our neighbourhood such a body of men as I have tried to describe. I have some reason to believe that. they are anti-Christian. They are probably anti-foreign too. They are not necessarily of the Boxer species. Yet they are I fear desirous of instigating a movement, which while not on similar yet may prove to he on parallel lines with the Boxer movement. The magistrates of the district evidently see nothing in it to cause alarm. They behave towards it as if they connived with it or approved of it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.