On November 24, the District Kuomintang met and decided:—(1) That an inquiry shall made and the smugglers and their protectors shal] be punished; (2) That the China Merchiints N. Ca, and the officers of the Kiangan "shall be punished for permitting smuggling on board that (3) That the China Merchants. SRI. Ca., should be required to disclose the names of the consignors and consignees of the opium that adequate steps shall be taken to punish them; (4) That the Bureau of Public Safety shall be requested to appre-end other persons implicated; (5) That full publicity should be tion to the matters and (6) That the Gendarmerie Commissioner shall be asked for an explanation of his action in ordering. the censors at the newspaper offices to suppress the news regarding this affair, "Test of Strength, In subsequent discussions, the military authorities contended that the shipment was an official one, that due protection was promised, that the police had no right to inter-fore in the matter, and that the police did not give "face" to the military, whom they failed to offer due respect.
'The.- Municipality, a branch of which is the Bureau' of Public Safety, on the other hand, contends that, while it is doing its best to suppress the opium traffic, the military are according protection to opium, smugglers end are even engaged in the business themaclves, They state that it isywas their duty to seize the drag and' contend that the military had no-right to interfere with them. They allege further that the military, depending on brute force, is tempting to interfere with the civil This is not the first dispute which has arisen between the Gendarmerie Commissioner and the Mayor of Greater Shanghai. The racing tax also is the subject of a quarrel which had arisen,—Hsiung Hsi-hui, the Gendarmerie Commissioner, thinks that he should receive a lion's share of the tax, and not a paltry 40 per cent., because he has forbidden his soldiers to interfere with the races, Dut the Mayor, Gen. Chang. thinks that the amount is quite sufficient, if not more than enough. A deadlock was recently reached and it has not yet been settled.
-Publie Organizations Roused Chinese public organizations are very indignant over the whole affair. They have telegraphed to Nanking demanding the punishment of the officials concerned in the matter.
They say that while commission, ted for the suppress shock. It is a national disgrace that officials should be in league with the opium smugglers.
In the course of a telegram to Gen, Chang Shih-kiang, chairman of the National Anti-Opium Commission, the municipal authorities for YY. Greater Shanghai deplore the protection accorded to opium smugglers. by the Gendarmerie Commissioner's office as well as the arrest of police officers who were engaged in the execution of their official duties.
Shanghai being the great cosmo-absolutely essential airy should be made and the offenders punished, irrespective of their rank. The efforts of Gen. Chang's Commission woul be fruit-lose if this were not 60 and Nationalist China woul be a farce if such matters were permitted with unity fen, Chang has telegraphed, saying that he is coming to Shanghai inn few days and will. personally investigate the matter.
The matter is considered of the "utmost importance local Chinese, who say that this is not only a. teat between the military and civil officials to sce who really should wield power bat matter upon which depends the success or failure of the work of the National Opium Suppression Commission, of which Gen. Chat Chit-kiang, "former Tupan_ of the Northuest Frontier Force, is chaicman, for it will decide whether or not the Government in Nanking is really well intentioned and anxious to suppress the drug or obtain revenue from it as kas been done in the past,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.