General Absence of This Class in Central District Business men and others in Cone tral District may have noticed thw a of PemeaRS during the past: week. This is due. in the main'to police activities clearing the district, Tu the last few days, concerted action has bean taken to' eliminate " this nuisance element and the appearance of, pavements in the area is proof of the effectiveness of the "driv This dass of people are not veridents of the Settlement, Neither axe. they refugees from Kompo or from parts further up the Yangtze They are a group of. specialists, xeually" pleading" a deformity some kind and in certain cased are accompanied. by an ardent expone fent, sometimes the story being told in "English, They "avite" me from Chapei with their escorts, bringibe jp huge" quantities of filth ant disease. At times they spend a week in the Settlement, On ocean sions they return to their native hearths about midnight, The majority of them are henchmen of the "beggar king." Woe. be unto these: beggars, if they donot contribute their just percentage to the coffers of their "hing." His immediate subordinates collect this It has even been suggested that they fear "His Beggar Majesty'? more than they dow any sentence which might be impared by' the Court, This is to some extent shown by. recurrent visite of those" Who have been exiled by the law.
Police methods are, simple, They tous their district with a large van, collecting this refuse, A might in the beggar cell perhaps. "Then a Jong drive to. the outskirts of the Scitiement and a gentle warning net to make their prevense too eon spiewous in future, Complaints of the prev tierment have vepanied by suycipal Council has repeatedly explore ed possible means of ridding the Settlement of mendicants, and while the measures taken bythe police afford relief it hus to be recognised that until the three administrations in this district agree upon a scheme for detention of beggars and their employment on manual labour. to such an extent that, the detention Lecoines irksome, little effective results are to be expected.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.