A week or two-ago I was writing to a friend in England and explaining to him that it was so easy for bandits to enter the army of cither side in Hunan just now that it would not be worth thei: while to capture a foreigner and that, therefore, he might feel easy as to the welfare of all of us in this province. Alas, I was not touching wood. It must have been about October 17, that I was writing. On that very day,. Mr. Strauss, a young German missionary who came out in connexion with the Liecbenzell Mission in 1921, was journeying from Hung-kiang back to his station at Wu-kang. He had finished the first 20 miles when a band of bandits, about 100 strong, took him prisoner. After marching him a further six or seven miles, they let him send ack his boy with a few words written on a card. The bandits ask for $10,000 for the release of their captive.
There is great scarcity of nows, and, happily for us in these cities, also a scarcity of rifle and gun firing for the past days. The Chao side claim that they have advanced on the right bank up to Chuting, a little town marking the first "stage" (ie. roughly 30 miles) this side of Hengshan. The Tan side claim some advantage at Siangtan, whence after ten days of silence we have begun once more to have mail communication. To-morrow the Woodcock is going up as far as Siangtan convoying cargo boats of the British firms who have a glut of cargo for that, town.
A fleet of coal boats got into the city on Saturday and coat! is purchaseable, at a price. Instead of $10.80 which we paid last year, we are asked $14.80 on the market to-day.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.