Determined Effort to Get Back Pay and Increased Salaries '¥noM Our Own Commesronenr.
Wuchang, Apr. 20.
Last Friday "teachers of the Government School in Wuchang' went out on strike in a body. Since: then, no classes have been conduct ed. in the schools. Several thousands of students are wandering at iN around the city, under no dis cipline whatever.
The plea of the teachers their salaries are not sufficient to enable them to live with the present high prices, It is a matter muon knowledge that. thei are in arrears of several months, so that they must be in difficulties in any ease, On Wednesday last, a deputation. from the teachers waited on the Commissioner of nce, Mr. Yang Huei-kang, office, Mr. Yang did not appear. After waiting until late into the afternoon, the delegates turn-Join into a committee, decided unless their demands received an answer within two days, that they would strike, On Thursday, the teachers of a number of, schools were already out, By Friday, the strike be came general. 'The teachers' delegates again visited the Finance and waited long for an but Mr. Yang was again invisible, A deputation of women-tenchers' was also gent to Mr.
Yang's private house, but with similar futile result, At lost, late peared at the Finance Office with a Tetter from Mr. Yang, promising that the matter of salaries would be adjusted as soon as public funds were available for the purpose This answer by no means sat fied the angry teachers, A little ater. Mr- Cheng Shih, the Principal of Chung, Hua' University, appeared, and told the deputation that Mr." Yang had promi their salaries should be rais the first of the fifth month. But this verbal message equally failed to please.
Night-long Wait for Commissioner About 7 p.m, Mr. Fan Chi-la, the Commissioner of Education, wecompanied by several other officials, came and repeated the promise shat salaries should be increased from the beginning of the fifth month. But the teachers refused brought in was hired ighbouring hotels, and the delegation settled down to pend the night in the outwork of the enemies' fortress which already Belonged to them. The women-teachers similarly spent their night the guest-room of Mr. Yang' house. On Saturday morning, after a brief interval for discussion, the siege commenced again. What folaewed will come to hand in later news:
Anti-Christian Agitators Silent To-day is the 28th of the month according to the Chinese calendar. This is the day upon which the annual festival at th Temple of Eastern Hell outside the East Gate of Wuchang is kept The fete begins several day beforehand, and is kept up for several days later; and during these days the temple is visited by thousands of people of all classes. This annual festival is always ma the occasion for an Evangelistic campaign by the united Churches of Wochang. But this year, in view of the present anti-Christian a tion, there wis some apprehen sion lest the field-preaching should attract the agitators and tempt them to make trouble. The appre~ hension was not felt by the Christ-inns alone. Close to the temple there is a house, whose owner usually rents one of his rooms to the preachers for their use during the few days of the mission. This year, the owner refused to rent his oom, fearing that he might be involved in any trouble that should break out.
However, the event so far has not justified these fears. For two days already the preaching has been carried on, and there has been no sign of any interference, while the usual crowds have come and listened in quite an orderly fashion to what the preachers have to say. This. is all the more significant when one bears in mind that, owing to. the teachers' strike," many hundreds of students from' Government Schools are on the loose, and undoubtedly no small number of. them must have used the opportunity afforded by their holiday to come to the temple. and: see what was going on there. If they had any serious intention of making trouble for the Christians, here was a golden opportunity. Since they did not use it, we may take it that their anti-Christian enthusiasm is! not strong enough to lead to any violent action, The-natural conclusion is, that, the agitation is probably the work only of a few agents, and is not commanding the sympathy of the students or of the people as a whole- The agents in question, like those who worked up the recent strike of ricsha-coolies Hankow, are probably paid emissaries of the Kuomintang.
Teachers' Demands Met:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.