The local high mandarins have received dispatches from Canton to the effect that the rebels of Yulin, Kuangsi province, are under a Chief bearing the surname of Hong, which is the same as that of the Emperor—Tien Wang or Heavenly Kivg—of the Taiping rebels, ie, Hung Hsiuchuan, This man calls himself the grandson of Tien Wang, and in this way his influence is very wreat with the people of Kuangsi, where the Taiping rebellion first began in the last year of the forties. Already three large ci es on the Kuang: Kuangtung borders have declared an, while the Government troops in his nity dare de nothing against him. The officials are doing their best to suppress facts for fear of "disturbing the people."
The Meeting Place of the Tariff Commissioners.
The old offices of the Chinese Railway Administration which have hitherto bee"
ing place of the British and Chinese Tariff Commissioners, having now been leased to an Italian merchant, it has been decided to use, for the future, one of the large rooms in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, on the Bubbling Well Road, for that purpose.
19th May.
The Illegal Use of Foreign Flags.
It is stated in local mandarin circles that one of the clauses of the new Commercial Treaty, now under negotiation and inserted by the Chinese Commissioners, refers to the prohibition of the illegal use by Chinese owners of junks and ships of—in the present instance—British flags, thereby attempting to pass off as British-owned vessels. It is proposed that should the Chinese officials suspect. ans merchant vessel or vessels, flying the British flag, to be really owned by Chinese subjects, upon the us tial complaint being made by the Chinese authorities to any British Consul, that official shall at once investigate the matter, and if it should prove that the charge is correct and the vessels, or vessel in question has been illegally using the British flag. the British authorities shall hand over the said vessels, or vessel and such of the cargoes as may be native-owned to the Chinese authorities to be dealt with according to Chinese law. In the same manner, should it transpire that any British subject using such vessel be aware that it is illegally flying the British flag and fail to report the matter to the British authorities the entire _British-owned cargo carried by the said vessel shall be confiscated to Government, and the British subject implicated in the fraud be dealt with according to British law.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.