We have been informed by' Com. G. de' Rossi, Italian Consul-General in Shanghai, that a Rareotic law, specifying—djeugs such as morphine, cocaine, berlin and opium has passed the Italian legislative bodies and, been incorporated in the corpus. juris of that country. It contains heavy penalties for the unlicensed sale of opium and the possession. of the drug for furtive sale or distribution, og well as for smoking-Fines ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 Hire, and imprisonment from two to six months, may be imposed by the Magistracy. The local Kuolian authorities ture) much gratified that they now have the ce-operate with the officers aguinst this nefarious traffic, and we are informed, will do actively, for they realize the immense power of this cornbin, which they have been powerless to combat in the past.
Locan cigar and cigarette merchunts have met and decided to =proeession which will tuaach to the yamen of Gen. Ho Feng-ling, the local Military Governor, to lodge a formal protest if the provincial authorities insist upon the collection of the special tax on cigars and cigarettes. They threaten also to unite with the five big tobacco companies in Shanghai in declaring a general strike, and to circulate posters opposing the tax.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.