A Chungking dispatch states that owing to the almost criminal laxity of the district and departmental officials of Szechuan province, brigandage has increased enormously since the commencement of this Fear. Merchant caravans and goods carried in boats passing to and fro were almost daily attacked by brigands and river pirates. Lives were frequently lost, but scarcely any effort was made by the mandarins to arrest the culprits unless the victims petitioned' the provincial authorities. As an instance of the magnitude of some of the robberies, in nine cases no less than Tls. 80,000 in silver alone were taken by robbers, not counting the value of cargoes plundered.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.