Nanking, Feb. 8.
All text-books for use in clement-ary schools throughout the country must be written In "Peh-hua," and eburses for the training of teachers the accurate pronunciation of "Pek should also be offered in all normal schools so as to accelerate the popularization of the national his is the purport of a circular order issued yesterday by the Ministry of Education to the various Provincial Departments and Special Municipal Bureau of Education.
The order was issued in response to a petition from the Shanghai Students Association, which points out that, in spite of the fact that the Peking dialect has been adopted the official spoken language of the country, little has been done by. the responsible authorities towards spreading its use, with the result that local dialects are still continued as the medium of instruction in the primary schools.
Continuing, the order states that the absence of one common Language constitutes one of the greatest obstacles to the unification of the people and therefore the various Provincial Departments and special Municipal Bureaux of Education should see to it that all text-books used in the elementary schools should be written: in "Peh'hua."—Kuo Min.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.