Cutting down expenses is to com: mence even earlier than the cutting: down of the size of the standing forees. Immediately after New Year—and by this foreign New Year ix meant—is the time when the size of the military appropriations shall be reduced. But that would be the wrong time to muster out troopers, for between January 1 and Chinese New Year countless numbers of Cantonese will be treking back to their country homes to celebrate the holidays, and the criminal el ment will be out in force, Always, in the past the Inwless bands that infest the outlying districts of Kuangtung have been most desperate, blooilthirsty, most successful during the few weeks preceding the passing out of the old year. And the government, now that great strides have been made in driving the pirates and bandits from the settled communities, will do its best to foil these outlaws, All available troops must be sent out to guard the lines of communication until Chinese New Year has passed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.