Ichang, Nov. 18, or the last three weeks Ichang has been passing through a period strain and anxiety and now feels much at ease, having suffered neither loss nor disturbance, The replacement of the 2nd Nationalist Army by the 20th and the 16th now complete and although Yang Sen has not yet come down from Wanhsien,.his predominance over [the other commanders who have still remnants of troops here may be judged from the fact that one of his private military secretaries is being appointed Chinese Superfatendent of Customs, His advent has been expected for several days and will on the whole be welcomed.—The people were in much anxiety for many days; their past experiences of Yang's troops have not been happy, but on the whole they have behaved pretty well. For one thing they were able to reach their immediate objective, Shansi, without fighting, Tang Sengchi's 8th "Army, "having reached /Shansi and beyond without striking 'a blow, retired in similar manner before the threat of the oncoming Szechuanese. Those of Yang's forces eft to hold Ichang have settled without serious incident jarly kind.—Some foreign property wag occupied on their arrival here, but proclamations were gent out protect all foreign and Mission buildings and what had been feupied was vacated as the troops moved down river or found other accommodation in the town, The Bandits Cleaned Up expectation of One thing that largely contributed to. this thee the new military authorities have vigorously" tackled the. ta of cleaning up the plague of band-fea with "when tchuthr city aad neighbourhood: have been inf for the last three months, During the Inst few days there have been several executions, and yesterday there was a very thorough clean-up of all the suspicious and. undesirble elements in the parts of the city outside the city wall. Two three hundreds were arrested and much arms and ammunition seized, There ts likely to be another rounds up inside the city in a few da fand after that the outlying. dise tricts will have to be cleared. Six days ago a boatload of travellers were relieved of all they possessed ight miles below the town.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.