In reference to certain articles that have been appearing in one of the Shanghai papers—not the "N.C.D.N.—there has been a bit of a furore here, many people resenting the reference to Gen. Tang as having been a bandit. Needless to say he has never been a bandit and his history is quite well known both to foreigners and Chinese. Incidentally it might be mentioned that his former teacher, an English missionary, is now stationed in Yunnanfu and occasionally visits his former pupil, who in appearance and in character is very far removed from what one generally imagines a bandit to be like. The fact that he was helped back to power by Wu Hsieh-hsien does not mean that he approved of the depredations at that redoubtable chieftain, who himself by-the-bye came from a respectable family and only took to the hills to save himself from the injustice that was about to be meted out to him by a corrupt official. It ought also te be added when Wu gave his word of honour to Gen. Tang after a reconciliation brought about largely by a certain English missionary, his sincerity waa apparent to all and sundry, while he has since kept the pact both in spirit and in the letter, and had it not been for the fact that, the government of Yunnan! when it changed its leader also changed its policy and broke its written guarantee, Wu Hsiohhsien would never again hayd taken to the hills and the history of the past 15 months would have been very different.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.