The New Year enters with anything but peaceful prospects for the near future in this part of Kuangsi. The majority of the victorious Kuangtung army has been moved to other spheres of activity. Many soldiers have been sent across country to assist in the settling of the Paakshik district where the Kuangsi forces are making a last stand; others have been sent to points lower down the West. River, where they are being transferred to the troops under President Sun Yat-sen, stationed at Kueilin, waiting for the proposed attack on the Northern provinces. The removal of so many troops from this section of the country, before the place has been thoroughly rid of the bands of ex-Kuangsi soldiers, makes the situation serious, Many bands of these soldiers have turned robbers and are terrorizing the country districts and villages round about, within a radius a few miles of the of city, and some of the bolder cones much closer, robbing the people, and then mingling with the regular flow of pedestrians.
Hotung, a town seven miles from Lungchow city limits has been nightly under fire from the guns of the robbers who are determined to have the place. The people, many of whom have fled, have had to leave much of their possessions behind. Quantities of grain stored for the future have been burned making the prospects of food shortage almost a certainly.
Bancaisixe Wits THE Roseers.
Amidst the tumult and havoc that follows in the footsteps of the war and along with the attacks on the various towns, one can see "'custom,' the one thing in China that has not changed during her centuries of life. In spite of the new methods employed, now and then there will be a reverting to the regular paths. This shows itself, rather humorously in one of the attacks by robbers on a village down the river. The robbers demanded $5,000 as the price of leaving the place intact. The merchants getting together with those making the demand, talked prices, getting the first figure down to $400, with which the robbers were satis-ied.
The regular motor boat service between Nanning and Lungchow is still at a standstill, An occasional military boat finds its way up the river with mail, and a few needed supplies, and usually returns to Nanning leaded with soldiers. The lest boat to make the run, the Cheuughing, while crossing one of!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.