The " Siuwénpao's" Wuchang correspondent sends the following which we translate below:—The other day a coi provincial Government, on condition that the contract of repairing the dykes and embankments near Hankow, commencing from the first station of the Lu-Han Railway, should be placed in his hands, Viceroy Chang Chih-tung being, however, convinced of the importance of this matter in connection with the future liberty of action of. the provincial government; promptly refused the loan and (probably) to show the foreign applicant that there is some mon in reserve in the Hupeh treasury, instructed the Provincial Treasurer and the Hankow Taotai to draw out the whole of the Famine Reserve Fund of Hupeh, lying at interest in native banks and pawnshops, and apply. the money to the reconstruction and repair of the dykes and embankments in question, with the remark that it would be dangerous to the future liberties of the province to give foreigners right—through such loans—to meddle in great public works of the kind.
It is perhaps not very widely known to foreigners that, ever since the contro-temps which placed Tsingtao in German hands and prepared the extension of German influence in Shantung province, Chinese officials everywhere have been and are most careful not to do anything which may be construed in any way in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.