Association is in receipt of the following communication from a missionary, dated from Kingtzekuen, Honan, bordering Shensi and Hupeh, November 7:
"In all this region poppy production has never been. seriously checked. It is now rampant. It is responsible for brigandage. Last month three brigand bands looted Nanhua, the centre of poppy land in N. W. Hupeh. The other day Lao Yang-jen looted Likuanchi'iao, the rendezvous of merchants transporting and smuggling opium into Liaohokow, Hupeh, which was besieged by him a few_days before, but which he failed to enter. There was a wholesale slaughter of the men of the city who defended the walls during a whole night. They rolled their women. and children over the walls, and most of them were drowned' in the stream, preferring a watery grave to brigand touch.
"Poppy growing was encouraged in the autumn sowing. An official announcement went out, 'Do not sow beside roads.', The average tax is $10 per mow. Every package of opium in shops is taxed and stamped, on pain of confiscation and fine. The stamp does not exempt from fresh taxation or confiscation after crossing the provincial border. Shensi highway from T'ungkuan—to Sian is safe from brigands because the opium merchants have paid tax on opium and fees for safe escort. All I desire for present relief is that Christians with a conscience towards God and men: shall be exempted ' by the provincial authorities from compulsory planting and protect-"ed from local officials. Expulsion from farms is - already threatened. Lao Yang-jen. was yesterday a day's journey "west of this town, and cut the telegraph line. Soldiers are embarking on boats which the people need and will cross the border this morning into Shensi, the supposed safety region. The town has decided not to resist."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.