According to a recent police report, there were before the confication some 37 monasteries, 105 nunneries, 706 temples, or a total of 848 religious houses, in Canton city alone subject to government or military action. In some instances in which the monasteries were in the hands of an influential few the Civil] Governor succeeded! during the inquiry in withholding them from sale. The Mohammedan Temple and another monastery of local fame, the Six Banyans, were thus saved.
The people of Canton, especially the poor and the weak, are practically without a friend, except the General Chamber of Commerce, when dealing with the officials. The former ward, and street unions are disorganized owing to lack of a public place for meeting. Their temples, formerly town-hahs and political and social as well as religious centres. are now no more.
For reasons known best to itself the present regime does not recognize the previous Republican administrations. Only deeds certified as proper by officials of the Tsing dynasty are now accepted as evidence of property ownership, and temples and other pub-lie places granted by Republican officials in the last 12 years to educational institutions are being withdrawn.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.