The next question that may prove 'a stumbling block to the Government fs the abolition of the "gun" or "kori," which is an intermediate political division of the country b tween prefectures and villages—not \bolition of the long established gun" or "kori" nomenclature, but that of "gan" offices, for which' purpose the government asks considerable appropriations in the Budget The Seiyu Honto is absolutely opposed and will again oppose it. Be-sid influential bodies in the House of connexion the latter] statement, the petition drawn up by the local Chamber of Commerce and other civie organizations has a direct bearing on these odious Tsingtao-Tsinan relations. The petition asks that the Tupan of] Shantung, the Director of the Port Administration and the—local military and naval authorities shall exert every effort to restore the! city's former status as a special administrative area, severing the ties which bind it to the provincial capital.
Comparatively speaking the most] progressive period Tsingtao- has yet enjoyed under Chinese administration, was during the regime of Governor Kao En-hung, when the city was divorced from' Tsinan and its corrupting influences. During the rest of its history as a Chinese city it has been the prey of] rapacious milita politicians. This is not apparent on the surface of things; it is no less true. Tsingtao appears calm and peaceful, from a foreign point of jew. It is still an attractive city and as a residential place is_unsurpassed in the Far East. How-fever, even in foreign circles the] shoe is beginning to pinch—the pocketbooks are beginning to suffer The rapid deterioration of harbour and terminal facilities and the paralyzing of freight: traffic have] had a most depressing effect on! business, seriously affecting "the volume of shi Just at this time.suth tithely because of the necessity moving harvest crops.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.