The agitation which commenced in the Chinese Maritime Customs a year ago against the conditions prevailing in the service, which were considered by a very large majority of the men to be unsatis factory, took a new development, Thursday when at a very enthusiastic meeting in the Customs Club it, was decided to form a guild representing practically all branches of the service. It will be remembered that in February of last year the outdoor staff commenced an agitation which preceded the granting by the Inspector-General of Customs of certain alterations in the nature of an increase of pay and the formulation of a superannuation scheme the details of which, translated from the Chinese Press, appeared in our issue of Tuesday. The men in their negotiations with Peking were represented by a committee in Shanghai, which, apparently, had been in existence ever since.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.