Changsha, Dec. 6.
Yesterday (Sunday) Chao Hengti fell and with him the last remnant of the adherents of T'an Yen-kai were purged from the de facto government of the province, all offices being now filled with adhere ents of the southern military government centring at Canton.
The decision to replace Gen. Chao was come to at a meeting of military officers which was held on Saturday. The choice of his immediate successor fell on Brigadier-General Liao Chia-tung who has assumed office as "Temporary Com-wander-in Chief."
The change was carried out fairly quietly on Sunday. The soldiers in charge, almost all of whom were connected with the Hunan First Division, which has been the special command of Gen. Chao, were distinguished by white armlets and white tags attached to! their rifles. They took charge of the city gates on the north and east sides (the barracks are in the northeast suburbs) and practically. closed them for traffic. Foreigners were challenged, but allowed to pass; Chinese were turned back. All the office belongings of the Commanier-in-Chief were looted or knocked about; but that was all the rioting that occurred. Amongst the soldiers themselves the foremost} grievance was the lack of pay. I met one of the sergeants who has served with Gen. Chao for six years, He is a very obstinately honest chap and was not admitted into the plans of armlets, ete. When he discovered some of his men adorning themselves, ho of course asked the reason and proceeded to give them excellent advice against looting and burning the city. "Are you the one man in special charge of Changsha?" was the retort: he was told he had better clear out. and as the advice was shortly followed by the shooting of a none too popular captain, the sergeant tot the advice to heart and cleared out, as he assured me, without a cash of ready money or a coat or trousers to wear after six very hard years of faithful service.
How rr was Excrnseren.
Whatever weight may be given to that distribution of socialistic literature amongst. the soldiers of ich I wrote a short time back, is a fact that this movement beginning with the removal of T'an Yen-kai and continuing with the removal of Chao Hong-ti, the interval being occupied with the removal of the whole of the "Ma-shih-hong"' clique, has been altogether engineered by officers, mem-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.