Haichow, 110 miles from Tsingtao, for some time has been notorfous as a place where bandits, agitators, and bad characters of all types abound. The bandits on occasions have turned pirates and it is to be supposed these latest attacks have been committed by the activities have been less noticeable, but of late they have molested seafarers on a grand scale, levies being imposed upon all junks trading thereabouts, whilst junk owners ashore who have not paid these levies in good time have been carried off and bastinadoed. Hitherto, these pirates have operated in junks, but recently they have been making use of a small vessel which they, captured from Japanese. They are cruising about in this vessel and have inspired unbounded fear along the coast.
The Japanese authorities have despatched a man-of-war to Haichow to take care of the situation, Some of the gunboats belonging to, the Northern fleet successfully could have been used in this respect, but it has been notorious for a great number of years that the: Chinese naval people have harboured most extraordinary conceptions in respect of their'duties. The people of Shantung always have complained of the naval incumbrance imposed upon them by Wu Pei-fu, and the Tsingtao Squadron has been looked at with disdain in Tsingtao and Chefoo.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.