As may be seen from the Imperial Decree published above, H.E. Wu Ting-fang has been transferred from the Waiwupu to the Board of Punishments. This step has been taken for convenience sake, as his Excellency is occupied with the task of revising the criminal code of this country, in conjunction with H.E. Shen Chia-pen, the Senior Vice-President of the. Board of Punishments. By being transferred to the last-named Board, H.E. Wu Ting-fang will be able to bend his whole attention to his task without being distracted by the routine work of the The Director-Generalship of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway.
As has been noted before there has lately been a hard fight for the post which heads this paragraph. A number of the gentry, merchants, and literati' of this of the gentry of the Two Kuang and Hrukuang proviness_in geting the "con: trol of the Canton-Hankow (Yueh-Han) Railway, have been' trying to emulate their example by finding fault with the management of the finances of the Shanghai-Nanking (Hu-Ning) Railway, which rai entirely within the boundaries of "Kiangsu—provinice. To further their schetne the gentry of this province, after complaining to the Shangpu and Waiwupa about the conduct of Sheng Kung-pao, asked for his removal from the Direstor-Generalship of the Railway, recommending the Optimus (Chuang-Yuan) Mr. Chang Chien to take his place. To counteract these intrigues Sheng Kung-pao asked the Shangpu to allow him to resign and preferred the request that Viceroy Chou Fu should take his post, as he was the best man for also on the spot. gentry of the province fight against Sheng Ki the Shangpu) i indonouncing to pao, for Prince Tsai Chen (Pri
Shang 's conduct generally, and vis-d-vis the Shanghai-Nanking Railway especially, further asked his (Prince Tsai Chen's) father Prine Ching personally", to recommend Mr. Chang Chien to their Majesties as the man who ought to'be'épp to succeed Sheng Kung-pao. "Everyone' present in the Grand Council at the time was sure' that xy Prince Ching's nomitice would, get the post, when to the astonishment of all the Empress Dowager replied that she differed from the Price's opinion as to the fitness of Mr. Ching" Ch'ien, ati'said that she had decided to appoint H. E. Tang Shao'yi, asthe latter's long experi-once as Manager of the Tientsin-Peking and Tientsin-Shanghaikuan Railways made him bottor fitted for such a réspon-sitio post than any other of the hundred and one persons who had nothing but a certain official rank, or influence, to recommer.d them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.