London, Apr. 23.
In the House of Commons to-day, replying to Sir Joseph Hood, Conservative Member for Wimbledon, Mr. Ronald McNeill, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, said that the British Minister in Peking had strongly protested to the Chinese Government against the illegal action of the provincial authorities of Chekiang and Fukien in imposing an ad valorem tax of 20 per cent. on imported cigarettes in contravention of treaties. A reply had not yet been received.—Reute:
AN interesting contribution to the problem of ricsha traffic_has just been made by Hankow. There the pneumatic tyre is being replace ed by a solid one, apparently.of rubber also, of a circumference only slightly less. This will obviate the necessity of a ricsha going out of commission as soon as a puncture occurs, and will apparently also have an effect on one phase of the' traffic in Hankow with which we are not familiar here. In Hankow, it appears, the intimidation of ricsha coolies takes place on quit a considerable scale, and the methods used include the theft of the valve from the pneumatic tyre and also slashing of the tyre. One of these modes of operation will no longer be available to tHem, and the other will be rendered less harmful,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.