The fact that trains from the north for the present run to Tsinan only does not seem to stop the steady ant-like procession on all the principal roads,—pilgrims from Manchuria, Tientsin and elsewhere returning to their Shantung and Chihli homes. The trains are tiled, too, Perhaps. one-half. of these home-comart are poorer than! when they went, the other half being somewhat better off. ts one engages in conversation with them he gets the impression that they would prefer to remain at home, but that the economic pressure forees them out. Perhaps a third of the hordes going from Shantung to Manchuria, Mongolia, and. other parts never come back, becoming a part of the new country either above or below the sod.
The rain and snow of the last few days has: been general, of course steadying the prices of grain and other supplies. To do away with the ancient lunar calendar does not please the country town and village, and it will take many years of effort before passive resistance of this sort will be overcome. The niarket town of Sanigyuen, near the northern border of Shantung, is interested in the monument lately unveiled in Peking to Dr. YG Shu-fen, the fine physician who contracted plague at Sangyuen while fighting that dis-famine times in 1921, still at Sangyuen, the proper number of years have not elapsed for the government to permit removal, Mission Education The schools at numerous mission stations have. been closed, especially. the schools above primary grade, It is hoped that the attitude of the government authorities of Shantung. in regard to religious instruction will be. modified before long, for otherwise many schools will not even attempt to register with the government. Opposition to religious instruction seems more active and marked than in most provinces, Ramour has it that dire results will follow any attempt at Christma celebrations,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.