The Commission for the Punishment of Higher Civil Officials costs an annual maintenance fee of $25,963; a similar commission for dealing with delinquent judicial officials costs $23,080. but surely if there are (as certainly there are) delinquent officials to be tried and punished, members of the judicial department may be asked to carry on the necessary proceedings them: selves.
It would be tedious to enumerate all the Government. offices which might either be totally abolished or whose staffs might be ruthlessly reduced. With reduced staffs efi: ciency might be hoped for in some the departments whilst. the salaries of the retained officials so far from being _reduced might even be increased as an incentive to honest and conscientious service. The enforcement of the 50 cents in the dollar policy will inevitably be attended by more corruption, dishonesty and inefficiency.
Unless the Government sets its mind to abolish departments the talk about retrenchment is not going to avail it very much, and it is sure to become bankrupt in name as well as in fact.
Cuana Hifai-chih, Chief of the General Staff, has found fault with the position of' the main entrance of the General Staff at Peking, which is facing direct south. He believes that this direction interferes with the feng shui. He has ordered the alteration of the entrance to make it face south-east and has offered to bear the expenses personally, the estimated east being $5,400.—And the General Staff is badly in arrears when it comes to salary One of the oldest of Hankow's carly residents. passed recently through that port homeward bound in the person of Mr. Nelson E. Bryant, Commissioner of Customs at Yochow, along with Mrs. and Miss Bryant. e came te Hankow 45 years ago as intere. prefer to the American Consulate. He has now retired and has earned a time of rest and recreation after his long service in the Customs.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.