The compositors of the English newspaper offices and foreign printing works have put in an ap-{plication for a 10 per cent. increase in wages.
Extraorptnary Stave oF AFFAIRS.
The office-boys have intimated their intention to cease work. on March 4. All the hotels are practically "closed, being without boys. Mr. Taggart, Managing Director of the Hongkong Hotel, is personally attending to the cuisine for tha provision of food for resident visitors only at the Hongkong Hptel. Chinese restaurants and tea-shops have closed. An unusual sight today was that of a queue of European men and women including the highest Government officials waiting outside Wiseman's Cafe to purchase bread, no customer being served with more' than a one-pound loaf.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.