To the Editor of the oura-Cuina Darty News."
Sin,—I was startled to read in yesterday's paper the paragraph) from your "Kueiyang correspondent, "Murderous doings in Kueichow," but I failed to recognize who was referred to under the name of Kuoh Chung-kuang. A private letter received this morning has made it clear to me, and it is with horror and almost a sense of personal loss that I find the defenceless old gentleman so} dastardly murdered and mutilated was an old friend whom I have known for years, Koh Tsi-hua.
T had known for some time that trouble was apprehended when the troops returning from Szechuan should reach Kucivang, but I never thought to connect Koh with it as) knew that. he had been living in retirement for several years, re maty from polities, indeed so disgusted and distressed was he at the! condition of things in the country) that. he refused even to talk about! current political affairs. When I left Kueiyang in the spring the only public matter in which hel appeared was an effort, with others' of the gentry, to devise means for providing rice at a cheaper rate to alleviate the distress that was beginning to be felt acutely among the poorer classes.
Koh Tsi-hua was an official of' the old school, a man well known and greatly respected in Kueichow. Under the Manchu Government his last post was that of taotai in the important city of Wuhu, and for some years before the Revolution he had been living in retirement at Kueiyang. At the time! of the Revolution it was principally owing to him that a measure of peace and order was kept in the city. Tt was generally recognized that it was in a great measure through his efforts that grave disorder and indiscriminate looting did not prevail.
When Tang Chi-yao_ became! Military Governor of Kueichow Koh was appointed Civil Governor and when Tang took over the post of Military Governor of Yunnan, Koh went with him for a adviser. Returning to Kueiyang he has since been living in retirement.
I gather from the letter that a! number of the principal gentry of 3 Kueiyang are in hiding, not knowing who may next be "wanted."
The state of things in Kueichow og well as in many other parts ere internal strife and disorder, prevails. is a sad commentary on the statement made by Wellington Koo which appeared in the paper a day or two ago. "No chaos in China only a little domestic trouble."
I am, ete.,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.