Changsha, Apr. 30.
Anxiety about a possible flood is the thought uppermost in the mind of most of Changsha to-day. For the most of Changsha to-day. For the last four weeks it seems to have rained steadily. Last week there was a bad storm when several houses were struck by lightaing and a number of boats wrecked on the river and since then there has been intermittent thunder and very heavy rain The river rose to 31 feet and is now over the Bund and almost knee deep in the River street which is parallel to the bank about 30 yards distant, All the omens point to a further rise, Unfit the Yangtze rises the water! can still run down to the Tungting Loke, but a little later when the Szechuan snow water comes down the Yangtze, it flows back into the Lake and the Siang is, as it were, dammed up. The Chinese! have been predicting a flood all the winter. There is a "flood feeling"
the air, they say, and Jong ex-Ferience presumably' justifies their apprehensions. The prospect is not encouraging unless the rain stops. soon.
'Compared with other parts of China, Hunan seems to be fairly stable' at present. The Governor, the province, Most of their resolutions dealt with rather trivial matters but two are of interest. It was resolved to investigate the title deeds of all the public and private temples in this part of China and to confiscate those which were not being used for public welfare, A motion was also passed that more] attention should be paid to the philosophy of Confucius and Men-dus and the educational authorities: were advised to consider the introduction into schools of a "Shorter Classics."
'A. Financial Conference is now in session and next month an Educational one is to be held. Directly after the Administrative Conference! the Governor left for Hankow confer with the military authorities: about the War.
Murder Trial There are two other matters of Jocal interest that illustrate the! present state of legal administra tion. One is a murder case. At Chinese New Year the second wife of a colonel in the army was found dead in a public lavatory. As the body had not been robbed, investigations were made and after a good deal of detective work the brother and daughter of the Colonel have been charged with the crime and the trial is to take place on May 3rd. The whole affair has been managed in a very business like way; witnesses are called and for the first time in Changsha tickets are to be issued for outsiders to listen to the proceedings, and the Government has printed instructions as to the proper behaviour of the audience.
The other affair shows only too] clearly the difficulties of—medical work in the interior provinees—difficulties that are undoubtedly creasing. Some time ago one of the: Chinese doctors of Hunan-Yale hosrital which is now running under Chinese control was accused of manslaughter. A child had been treated at Yale but afterwards removed by the parents to a Chinese hospital here it died. The father brought an action against the doctor, alleging that too strong a dose of medicine had been administered. At the trials the case was dismissed but imniediately afterwards, the doctor was again arrested and kept in a house! of detention. A charge was brought! by the public prosecutor for professional negligence. Medicine for ight days had been given with instructions that half the dose marked on the glass bottle should be taken' at a time. The father denies that) he was told this and the bottle has! conveniently been lost. It is appar ently the law in Japan and custom in Shanghai that medicine shall only be given for two dai at a time. Unfortunately there is a great deal more behind this story. 'A Medical Association has just been restarted in Changsha and certain doctors with Japanese qualifications! have not been invited to join and it is clear that this case is engineer-turned students who wish to die credit Hsiang-Ya. The father of] the child is only a eatspaw in the hands of these people and now that the case has been taken up by the public prosecutor, it seems that they have more influential friends. The second trial has not yet taken place. Hsiang-Ya has now one foreign doctor back on the staff and aided ty a regularly paid government grant is doing a very useful work in the city. A premedical course has been restarted and it is hoped to continue this up to the full medical training.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.