The people of Shantung, pecially those of Tsingtao anil Chefoo, ahvays have growled against the naval incumbrance. im= posed upon them ever since the time the redoubtable Wu Pei-fu decided he could do with a few ships of his own. Unfortunately for the Mar. shal, the Admiral in command failed to accomplish any of the things expected of him. Wen Shiowteh will long be remembered "the money-raising admiral."
The ships always have been look: ed at with disdain by the local folks, who declare that they should be scrapped and sold as junk, inas= much as they never have rendered and service to the faction in control of them. When belonging to the South, they consistently failed te fight the North; when belonginie to Wa Pei-fu, they failed to stem Chang Teo-lin at Shanhaikuan, and now, when belonging to Marshal Chang, they hide in port, in Chefoo or Tsingtao, bickering amongst themselves, with an occasional trip to Woosunx to fire a dozen ronniis at the fields behind the forts—-reports have it that the Haichi's latest exploit resulted in the killing of a mule and the wounding of a cock!~ thereafter ecooting back to their base.
The pirates and bandits of Haichow long since could have been tackled by these Northern ships thet activi the Admiral apparently such a degrading business.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.