The poor people in this province are being taxed beyond their powers of endurance. Roving bands of robbers are causing the people to desert their homes and move into the mountains or into the cities, and! travellers in certain distriet- find it impossible to purchase food. The houses are being neglected and passers-by can hardly tell whether the homes are vacant or inhabited.
Some robbers waylaid several travellers at a certain village and robbed them of everything. In addition they smashed in the tins of kerosene the merchants were carrying and when the ai] ran out the robbers set fire to it. All fear of officials and soldiers is gradually disappearing and it is to be hoped the robbers will yet go too far and cause the officials to endeavour to put down the brigands in the proper way.
It can ho done as the following proves. Three officials left Cheng-yuan for their respective centres and united their forces in the hope of getting safely through the danger zone. Thirty Zi from the city the robbers attacked them and gave them a bad time of it for a season. One of the soldiers, however, got away and ran with all haste to carry the news back to Chengyuan. The soldiers were de patched without delay, and when they arrived on the scene of action there was a real "fight. It is hard to correct' reliable information from a distance, but it is estimated that not more than 100 and not less than 40 robbers were killed. It is quite within bounds to say at least 50 robbers were shot by the soldiers.
A large quantity of booty was carried off by the "braves" including horses, rifles and ammunition. The soldiers attacking the robbers appear to have "nipped in the bud" the proposed attack on the city off Chenyuan itself.
News from the border of Hunan is very distressing, and it is re ported that the people in many places are forced to eat the bark of trees, the roots of grass and other things. As famine conditions are to found in Tung-jen and Chengyuan dustries it is almost impossible to allow the rice to be exported into Hunan. The winter will see much distress in eastern Kueichow and western Hunan. Strange to say, the officials in Kueichow are going madly on with allowing the farmers to cultivate opium and in some places flour is now selling for up-rds of $0.30 per catty. What with brigands, famine and other calamities it is no wonder that the people pull long faces when they contemplate the future.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.