In August a bad case of banditry occurred near Yochow, a foreign priest being dragged off a junk and beheaded. On the 27th October serious attempt to loot the Hankow Changsha express was made. The raiders arrived too late to catch the train, s0 looted the Tso-an-ling rail way station instead, This raid ores ed such a feeling of insecurity in the district that the railway time table was allered 10 enable trains on this line to pass through Huper in daylight hours only—and this change is still Im force, It is said that there are_at "present over, ten~ thousand deserters from the "Red armies of Kiangsi, of which only a few hundred are armed, in the mountainous regions of South-East Hupeh, Hushihkiao, a small town between Kinnlu_and Hoshangkia" well as Wantaikiao, near Pao: having been looted by them cently as December. The authori-les appear to be content to drive the bandits into the mountains after each raid and ope that they will finally disperse and disappear their own accord; until the authorities venture their troops into the mountains and) make a of kerosene Development of hankow has. been. improver It, can safely be said that there
ulldings have been erected in. dit-arent parts of the port and land has changed hands at reasonable prices.
Inthe Native City the development of new roads appears to have tlackened, but still the—_pushing through of wide thoroughfares is go-Ing on; most probably the heavy expenditure of the previous year has Recessitated reduced outlay on pub:
improvements during the current year. Some new roads have been Fun out from the port into the country: asphalting of existing roads has: been continued and some rounding, fof street. corners to improve traffic conditions Is going on.
In No. 3 District, a large Chinese Bank is under construction and sev~ eral large blocks of shops and houses for Chinese occupation have been erected. Two large blocks of foreign residences have been completed in the French Concession, Whilst in No. 1 District there is, a new block of houses for Chinese fand also block of apartments for first class foreign occupation. Some new houses have also gone up on. the Jardine Estate and three more! are under construction, This is an improvement on the: last five years, but it should be noted that new construction is for business residence and not industrial.
In Wuchang, Ichang and Chungking wide roads are being cut rough the closely congested areas and extended into the country beyond.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.