May 19. News from H.M.S. Cricket received yesterday stated that in obedience to instructions she had gone to Changteh to inquire into the case of a Butterfield and Swire tug being fired on, had interviewed the local Chinese chief-of-staff, and had obtained profuse apologies. Changteh is not, of course, on the Yangtze, but at the northwest corner of the Tungting Lake: but the moral is the same. Such incidents and messages as those mentioned above are almost of every-day occurrence. At rare intervals we hear of something serious enough to deserve the conventional name of outrage,'"' as when, early in April, a party of missionaries were attacked by pirates two days out of Chungking and saw their houseboat absolutely cleared out. There are Said to be bands of brigands which literally parcel out the river among them into spheres of influence.'' More often, however, it is simply a band of ill-regulated soldiers who apparently get an attack of nerves and fire wildly at any strange-looking ship. Who they are, to whom they owe allegiance and what
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