The following statement of measures taken for the veneral protection of their lines by the Lien tsin-Pukow Railway and Peking-Hankow Railway Administrations has been handed to Reuter's Agency by the Ministry of Com'munications.
Those applying to the T.-P.R, are given first.
Those that are practically a repetition in the Peking-Hankow regulations have been summarized.
Peking, June 24.
1.—Special police patrols stationed in the principal trackman's huts so that they can make nightly inspection of the line. Suitable points between two connecting stations are to be selected so that police patrols from these two stations can meet and exchange their checking cards with each other.
2,—Regulations governing night! duties of police patrols at the stations.
3.—Officers of patrols to make personal inspection trips from time to time 4,.—All platforms of passenger cars on both the special express and mail trains to be guarded by efficient armed policemen in turn.
5.—Special guard cars are to be provided for any emergency Use called for by local military authorities concerned in connexion with protection of travellers.
6.—All passenger trains are now running "rough the provinces of Kiangsu, Anhui, and Shantung during day-time. For the sake of avoiding possible danger, the method of sending a patrolling train ahead of regular trains might be adopted when daylight is shortened in winter time. 4 7.—Efficient and experienced railway police are to be picked and assigned to various points between Tsangchow and Pengpu. In civil jan clothes, they are to inspect tha country along the railway for any possible information regarding the whereabouts of bandits.
8.—Local villagers are to be employed as assistant scouts for the railway.
9.—The following troops are to be held responsible for the safety of travelling for various localities. The 23rd and 26th Divisions are responsible for the section between Techow and Hing-is: and Tientsin; the Tung-kuang Gendarmerie for Tungkung Station, the 89th Regiment for the section between Tungkuang and Tehhsien, the 90th Regiment for the section between Tungkuang and Hingtsi. Heavy guards are to be stationed at Hingtsi, Tsanghsien, Nanpi and Wuchiao. For Chihli' and Chuanho, there will be one company of soldiers stationed there. For the 16 stations including Yaokuangtun,: Fengchiakow, Lienchen and Anling, one secret military detective will be assigned for duty.
10.—Divides the railway into sections and assigns troops to each.
11.—For the province of Anhui, the various. military units now stationed at respective points ar¢ to be requested to give ce-operation for the protection of the railway.
Until the time schedule is changed in such a way that the passenger trains pass all provincial stations within the province during day. time, soldiers are to be put on duty at various stations or on different trains for the protection of the railway.
12.—For the province of Kiang-ssu, the Military Commissioner of Nanking is to be responsible for the section between Pukow and Huachiying, and the Military Commissioner of Hsuchow and Haichow is to be responsible for the section between Chiakou and Likouyi. While running between Hsuchow: and Lincheng, one special car is to be attached to both special express and mail trains, up and down, at the disposal of the latter: Commissioner so that he can despatch soldiers to protect the railway as adequately as possible.
A.—General Protection for the line:—(1) and (2) practically identical with those for the T.-P.R. _3.—To select 140 special travelling police to be commanded by 4 officers and accompanied by 8 men handling signals with special armoured cars to accommodate them so that groups of this fored can be despatched from place to place for inspection work, thd armoured cars to be attached to the trains.
B.—Constant watch for © the whereabouts of the Bandits 1.—To employ a special Secreti Service Force to be stationed at! various points of the line so that they can be on constant watch fon and report the, whereabouts of the bandits, 2.—To request the local civil au~ thorities along the line to encourage the ce-operation of the public in locating and reporting the whereabouts of the bandits.
3.—Elaboration off A il and 2 above.
To instruct the railway police of all stations to inspect both ways of the line during the night, the men of one station are to meet the men of the other station and to exchange the checking cards of their respective stations as evidence of execution of their duties—in such a way all sections of the line can be inspected every night.
©.—Deviges safeguarding the running of trains:
1.—To provide patrolling trains, consisting of one or two cars, to run between Yenching and Kuanghsui-stations, preceding the regular trains.
2.—To change the present time table so that trains would pass the so-called bandit country in day-time.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.