A side-light on the prevalence of tumour and scaremongering in the South is forthcoming from a special despatch from Swatow. Apparently the unfortunate folk of Swatow have been thrown into a state of panic by extraordinary press accounts of conditions prevailing in their midst. accounts have found hpsitablity in Hongkong newspapers, thanks, it ig alleged, to the assiduity of certain informants in Canton. Receiving these newspapers, the people of Swatow have somehow arrived at the'conclusion either that they must be very unpbservant or that Hongkong has special knowledge of their own predicament, The result has been to present the Swatow authorities with a pretty problem in the handling of excited residents some of whom have gone as far as to seek the amenities of Hongkong in the belief that if the news in the Hongkong papers is hot confirmed by past events it may easily be prophetic. Fortunately commonsense and a certain amount of counter-propaganda by the local authorities have restored Swatow to the semblance of calm which is its normal Jot. The suggestion that the Hongkong, authorities should be invited to use their influence in the matter is sound, but circumlocutory, Surely, Swatow might have the audacity to give one or two of the editors of the journals concerned a suitable exposition of the actual state of-affairs, Responsible newspapers are usually only too glad to have firsthand information of that kind enif to check their other and less direct sources accordingly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.