Peking, Dec. 4.
General Chang Fu-lai, military governor of Honan, recently sent a telegram to the Government reporting that he had taken the field in person and had achieved' a clean sweep of all the bandits in his province. This was so obviously untrue that the local press in all languages has taken great delight in proving that, while Lao ¥ang-jen and his following may have crossed the border to harass Hupeh, Honan is still as lively as ever and the tufei seemingly as numerous even in the districts abandoned by the larger bandit armies.
er wvhlished yesterday in the "Benn Zien Shih Pao' tells of the activities of the Red Spear Society (Hung Ch'iang Hui) throughout the province, members of this cult indulge in blackmail and robbery and frequently ce-operate with any bands of tufei that come along to loot and kidnap wealthy Chinese. The authorities regard the growth of this organization as a.' serious menace and even while Chang Fu-lai was reportin'y how effectively he had cleaned house in Honan he was issuing orders to regiments from the 14th Division and from the 1st Shensi Division to proceed against the Red Spear bandits in the Kushih, Kuangshan and Hsi-hsien districts where more than 3,000 of the marauders have lately been very active.
Apart from the many Honan bandit stories with which the papers are filled, there are many accounts of bandit enterprises in Shantung. The "Ch'en Pao" today publishes a letter from Hua-cheng in Shantung giving an amusing account of a bandit birthday party. A prominent bandit chief, Chao Ch'eng-chih, recently had.a birthday and invited the whole countryside. to a most—elaborate party. The country within a 70-2: radius was guarded by armed bandit sentries, but all who came as guests were shown every. courtesy. The -wealthicr merchants and the gentry. all attended and. had a splendid time. spite of the unsettled condition' of the country, says the Asiatic News Agency, commerce and industry have been making rapid strides. "From January. 1, up to the end of October, no fewer than 60,000 companies had been. registered in the Ministry.of Agriculture and Commerce, with a total capital of more $35,000,000. Among them are more than a dozen banks and a number of cotton spinning factories.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.