Not " little trouble has recently been experienced on the Pootung side as the result of the Chinese Government resuming control of a piece of Innd over which number of Chinese farmers have been es-suming something in the nature of squatters' rights. At a place call-Shaukong the Government is possessed of a piece of land of an area of about two thousand mow. It had been more or less neglected in the past with the result that neighbouring farmers have encroached upon it and have taken it all up.
The Government recently, however, determined to impose a charge of $3.40 per mow upon the farmers occupying the land end deputed one of the notables of the district V. to collect the dues. Another prominent personage undertook to speak for the farmers in an endeavour to get the tax removed, but his efforts were of no avail. The 283 farmers thereupon attacked the house of their unsuccessful mediate or, the police were called in and, in the scuffle which ensued, one policeman and a farmer were killed, while two of the police were wounded.
A magistrate who went to the spot to quiet the people retired on account of the hostility shown by the countryside, and troops are now being sent to the spot.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.