Probably the first impression in the minds of the waiting lodginghouse keepers was that with the progress of enlightenment the people had ceased to fear the spooks, but when the wireless messages get through it will be found that whilst the folks of Hankow fear the spooks Just as much as ever, they fear the Communists much more, In order to guard against the greater foe, the lesser had to be left in peace.
The last fortnight has been a time of unrest. Petty robberies are ways numerous towards the end of the year, but this time they have been perpetrated almost openly. One method was revealed through the experiences of a cook from a foreign baure. He was standing outside a shop just up the Chinese street on the Concession border when two men grabbed him. One of them announcced that he was wanted for a murder and had better come along. If he had been a quiet sort he would have been taken to some haunt and held for & small ransom. But being of the vigorous sort, he offered to take his captors to the police station, and when the shop-assistants told ' the two men that they had better be careful, he was set free, group of workers in foreign employ received their January pay and a bonus, and started by boat for the Hanyang Point hailed the boatman and jim to put in to the shore. This he did, and the passengers were relieved at the point of a gun of all their money. These incidents are typical of what has been going on.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.