The problem of indemnities is a most difficult one. One factor of importance is that, even if demanded, several months must pass before we can get the necessary funds. Another matter of even. greater importance is the tice that has been common in China of forcing the indemnities from the people of the district where the trouble has taken place, and also a sufficiency of extra money to compensate for the trouble the officials have been put to. Strong local prejudice is raised, and the blame is put on the foreigners, not on the people really in the wrong. In the present instance the people of Tsaoshih and the neighbourhood have in many' cases suffered more than even the foreigners, and, facing that suffering, it is not sufficient to say that it is their own look-out, seeing that the suffering has been caused by their fellow nationals. One can imagine what they have to say to the imposition of extra taxes, especially since the bandits are not local but from another province, The local council] of the London Missionary Society has set its face against any application for indemnities, and looks forward to the gradual repair of the damage from other sources than money wrung from those who have already suffered so severely. But there remains the stoppage of the hospital work, and it is our hope that some means can be found for again setting in action this helpful work.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.