Mawreestariows of unrest appear spasmodically in almost every part China, but in the provinces of Kuangtung and Kuangsi, generally known as the Two Kuang, unrest seems to have found a permanent habitation. Scarcely a month passes without reports of local rebellions or inter-clan fighting coming from these provinces, and readers will recall that from time to time work on the Chinese section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway and the Canton-Hankow Railway has been yea checked owing to the disturbed state of the districts that these lines traverse. About a fortnight ago we published a graphic account taken from a Hongkong contemporary of the dangers and difficulties attending the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, and from other sources we learn that the picture was by no means too highly coloured. Payment of the coolies employed on the Chinese section of the line is attended with great peril. The payma: -¢ constantly being attacked an bed, and should they escape, the bandits, who are often neighbouring villagers adopting the profession temporarily, wait until the coolies have received their wages, and then rob them indivi-Taally. To compensate themselves for the extra trouble involved, they not only despoil the coolies of their money, bat also requisition their clothing and their meagre food supplies. Nor is it only those employed on the railway works who suffer. Great stretches of paddy country in this part of Kuangtang have been deserted, because the farmers have either all been killed off or have left the locality owing to the insecurity of life and property. In other parts of Kuangtung snd in Kuangsi there is constant fighting between the provincial troops and bands of rohbers or between different clans. A Lienchow correspondent in a letter published to-day relates that the place has been seething with unrest, which culminated in-an attack' upon some educational establishments and 9—straggle
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.