Honan.
The Boxers of Honan province, evidently depending upon the well-known sympathy of Hsi Liang (Mxnebu), Governor of that province, he having been a strong partisan of the notorious Prince Tuan and intimate friend of the late sanguinary Yi Hsien, the bloodthirsty Governor of Shansi in'1900, have, according to a K'aiféng (capital of Honan) dispatch, again begun to revive in that province their Boxer, or Great Sword" Society, propaganda—for the Boxers are only an offshoot of the Great Swords of Northern Kiangsu province. This Boxer propaganda was begun in the sub-prefect tual city of Kuangehou, Honan, in the carly portion "f March last, and gradually spread until the common people of the four hsiens belonging to that sub-prefect ture, namely, Kuangshanhsien, Kushihhsien, Hsihsien and Shangeh'énghsien, are now almost all proselytes of the Boxer headmen who have been daily holding numer-ussly attended seances, or meetings, for the past three months or so, initiating their disciples and teaching them how to become ' invulnerable" to the ballets and swords of the Western Barbarians. all the above has been an open secret in Kaifeng for nearly two months and Governor Hsi Liang was amongst the very first to know it, yet he did nothing to stop it, or show his disapproval of the propaganda. Evidently Hsi Liang thought that Honan was too far away from the coast or Yangtze for foreigners to hear the Boxer movement in his province, Dut he was soon brought to think otherwise by receiving the following telegraphic dispatch in the middle of April last rom. Viceroy Chang Chih-tung at Wuchang have received a dispatch from the Britis Consul at Hankow, stating that he has heard that the po-ple of the four districts of Kusngchou, Honan, and thence north-Yard to. Chouchiak'ou are practising Boxer antics and that the people teaching them are mostly members of the Great Sword Society, or Tatao Hui. Further that, although' the sub-prefect of Kuangchou knows of this state of affairs, he dare not interfere, while, on the other hand, the gentry and literati stand aside and look on, making as an excuse, th: they will do nothing because of the pr-hibition in force forbidding literary examinations in their cities. Besides this the Consular dispatch goes on to state, the rumour that people's eyes are being gouged out for medicinal purposes, is again being universally spread about in the south-stern portions of the same province.'
As, unless this be stopped, there may again rise up serious Consul asks me (Viceroy Chang to request that Your Excellency (Governor Hei Liang) issue strict orders to put a stop to this revolutionary movement as soon as possible."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.