The cessation of military movements. and the gradual "downward tend in the of. cereals has done -much towards bringing about more settled and peaceful conditions in the past. three months. The winter wheat benefited greatly by the repeated fails of "snow, and although sown Very late, the pre-Sent prospects are. fairly The Ching Ming festival was greeted. by a. timely spring shower to cover up the dust and hurry on the Spring growth. At. the" present time, the average cost of living in terms of local. products is. vealy lower than it has been for the four years or more. Wheat is now! $1.25 per tou (24 catties).
'The recovery of business general-cly is considered to be very slow, partly due to the long Interrupted communications and. insufficient yelling-stock, Constané_ complaints are heard of the 'Kinhan' Railway conditions between Shuntefa and Hsin-hsiang-hsien. General Shih Yacshan_ still controls this. section and hinders the free use of a great Amount. of rolling: stock. " Overland routes east and we re gradually' doing cleared of bandits, but much still: remains to be done towards making safe the mountain routes provinces.
Westward into Shensi and Shans
Recently, three gangs of bandits have been raided by the local sah tary and. Min. Tuan, with, some useful captures of Leaders of fame land terror tothe community, "In the Muluantien "and. Wuchihsien areas, a clever capture of fader was effected and lits follow-scattered. Then Changliuchuang, p village on the Chinyang and Meng-hsien border, was raided by soldiers, and a bandit leader and fifteen of his followers wert captured, Several] people who were being held for ransom escaped, but they wore in dad health, having been Kept blindfold and'foreed to make _night Journeys through the snow without proper footgear, They were kept, old wells during' the daytime, having to stand in water two. or three feet deep and the physical attacks has lessened considerably.
On the whole, the fear of band attacks has lessened considerably. sure of protec: up the village their gates at sundown, Travel and. the carting] of coal and other commodities night is impossible now. Formerly, heavy carts: would continue on their Journey late into the night and start} in the early morning, but now they all stop at some protected place from sundown to sunrise.
'Village education severe setback, The type of villa school has been closed by government order, but there seem to be no funds forthcoming to assist in the organization tchoole for boys and gies Schools that were opened' a Year oF {vo ago. are not re-opening," 'There ive many villages of several bundaed families" that have "no. organized Schools' og yet, "Of course, many Schools. suffered from military oe" Eupation and have not been able to Seopen again Peaceful conditions fomrnlye wi gurely "be followed Byrarvetival and ni vance in. educe-Sin for girls as well as for boys.
"The. feeding of silkworm has aways been an very" productive fndagtey in the Huafking area, and the Government. Agricultural School His layed Targe part fein ome industry as. well, Children ing. and" developing it a
Tete home, enn ghe fea worms anil poor and vic alike add snd' caring for" the their family "budget "annually hom this Industry. Since the une Settled conditions and wer in this "Uist. of four years ago, the sale ihe, products of the silkworm become worse and. worst, Last Yom he sik was sold for about Jarier of what was expected. and Sime is not sold yet, This springy oars seems, ierned an the eaves are just being left on, the teeth, the industry is dead and the people ave that mich poorer. This rst year m the memory of {he present generation when. "here wit be no slleworm feeding:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.