Changsha, March 20.
According to an official telegram received from the Cabinet by General Chang Ching-yao of Hunan, the Chihli troops under the command of General Wu Pei-fu at Hengchow will be withdrawn in three instalments commencing with the mixed brigade under the command of Major-General Hsiao Yao-nan. The families of the officers of this brigade have already been sent to Hankow en route for north China and all officers and _noncommissioned officers of the Chibli troops in this province, who want to return to their native lands in north China after three years' residence in western Hunan, will be permitted to exchange posts with those who are willing to remain at Hengchow for another year, as there is no date fixed for the withdrawal of the remaining three mixed brigades yet. This arrangement has given satisfaction to both the Chihli troops and General Wu Pei-fu so that baseless rumours about serious rupture between Gen.
and Gen. Chang have automatically disappeared. The posts evacuated by the above-mentioned Chihli troops will be taken up by Chang Ching-rao's troops.
Gen. Chang Ching-yao has just issued stringent instructions to all his subordinates, civil as well as military, stating that in accordance with the orders of the central government, all persons. regardless of their position or rank, will be most severely punished if they dare to buy. transport or cultivate onium or poppy seeds, and that as the prohibition of the opium. peril concerns foreign Powers and the national prestige of the Republic. this order must be strictly enforced thronchout Hunan provinee—Asiatic News Agencies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.