Up to yesterday there has been no reply received from the Russian Consul-General by Yuan Taotai with reference to the lattec's repeated demands for the persons of the Russian sailors guilty of the murder of Chou Séng-yn. This has aroused the ire of the Chinese community here, especially the Ningpo portion of it, to an unprecedented degree, who regard the uncourteous attitude of the Russian authorities as 8 deliberate insult to the Taotsi and through him the whole nation. We now understand that Yuan Taotai has telegraphed to the Waiwupu requesting that Board to ask the Russian Minister to instruct the Russian authorities in Shanghai to accede to the just demands of the Chinese population of Shanghai.
The Ten-year Sentence of Wan Fu-hua.
All the Chinese newspapers write sarcastically about the recent sentence of ten years' imprisonment and hard labour upon Wan Fu-hus, the man who drew revolver on the person of Wang Chih-chun, the cashiered ex-Governor of Kuangsi, a fow weeks ago. The gist of the criticisms is that there seem to be two kinds of justice in China, one for Chinese snd ove for foreigners. A case in point amongst many others is quoted in proof, namely, the one in which some foreign bluejackets were the other day guilty of deliberately throwing into the river a Chinese at Canton, thereby causes the death; the sentence on the Wan Fu-hua the mere drawing out of his revolver on the cashiered ex-Governor Wang Chih-chun has brought upon the former the unprecedented and unheard. of penalty of ten years' imprisonment with hard labour. Even according to the laws of this country, which are notoriously severe and harsh, the penalty on a person meditating murder, but; unsuccessfully, the intended victim' having. sustained' no injury or wound, is onoglundred blows with the large bamboo and banishment to a distance of 3,000 li, for the period of three years—a decided difference between this and ten years' imprisonment in, the Municipal gaol of Shanghai, an institution regarded by the} orage native hero with dread owing to stern and rigid rules. Finally there is a general feeling which is getting stronger and stronger, as such cases continue to arise, that foreign Consuls always do their best to protect their nationals from the consequences of their delinquencies vis-d-vis Chinese cor plainants, while mandarins seem to delight in inflicting as heary pu ments as they can upon their fellow-countrymen whenever the latter stand in the position of defendants vis-6- the foreigner. Yet foreigners complain that they are hated as rule by Chinese! In former times the populace generally friendly while mandarins were anti-foreign; now-a-days with cases like those quoted above and with the latest phase of the Bund murder by Russian sailors, one can! hardly wonder that this sufi-foreign feeling has been transmitted from the Mandarins to the populace, plus con-! tempt of the invertebrate and week-knead mandarins. Those who have had an education and especially those who have had the benefits of a foreign education understand that all this is due to the weakness of China, the Government of which has, in consequence, had to submit to bullying and coercion, but the average, unread native, especially those in the inland towns and cities, do not understand these hence their readiness now-a-days to ill treat foreigners they see amongst them because the compatriots of this foreigners " bull-doze the formers' nationals in the treaty ports, The New Chinese Minister to"
Corea, H.E. Tstog Kuang-chu'an—known li London as Lord Kingeast Tseng—had hi farewell audience of the Throne on Sunday and was expected to leave Peking for Seoul yesterday forenoon.
28th December.
The Recent Emeute at Hankow.
With reference to the recent trouble (which nearly rose to the importance of popular meute) between a large number of Chinese hongs, dealing in skin, hides and other export products, in Hankow, and the two German firms of Arnhold, Karberg, and Ca., and Carlowits and Ca., wherein the native hongs demand over Tls. 130,000 from the German firms for goods supplied them through their respective compradores, one of whom had committed suicide, while the other had absconded, as already reported, we now learn from Hankow that it is reported—with what amount of truth we are unable to say—that the German firms in question have consented to pay Tls. 100,000 on the understanding that bygones be bygones and trade, 60 far interrupted, is allowed to continue la its normal course. We also understand that in reply toa petition, conjointly signed by over one hundred Chinese longs, sotting forth their side of the case, Viceroy Chang Chih-tung wrote his Rescript that "since in all cases boon plaintiffs the es bly do their best to force the Chinese what they owe to the fo so he (the Viceroy) si the Consuls of all foreign firms would also do their best to seo justice dealt out with impartiality and Chinese creditors got their dues, thereby wisely directing the channels of reade to flo smoothly, without check or hindrance His Excellency also asks in his Rescript, foreign firms be allowed to decline to be bound by their compradores' contracts with Chinese hongs, what is to be done in the future when Chinese are debtors of foreigners? Finally, the Hankow Customs Taotai, Shang, is li structed to convey his Excellency's sontiments as quoted above to the German Consul at Hankow, with the earnest hope that the matter under review be impartially and justly settled without delay.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.