Local Buddhist monks are up i arms against the bureau of social 'Welfare' of the Peking municipal government for the regulations Which it recently promulgated 3 quiting the registration of tempi ili Peking:
An indignation meeting was held yesterday when more than. 600 monks attended, Monk Pu Chuan presided and in a" fiery™ speech Strongly assailed the regulations the bureau.
The chairman said that temples stood' ona different, footing rom other, "forms. of private. property Tike houses and land. Practically all of the. temples "Were built by public subscriptions and had. been transmitted from one. generation another for hundreds of" years, They could not be sold as: houses land and, therefore, should not. be Viable to the payment of a registra- a ton fee The speaker alleged that one of the regulations "provided that ence a temple could not. produce a certificate, no. monks should be. ale lowed! to five on the premises. this regulation wore enforced, it would result in many of the temples becoming the property of the bur social welfare, the monk Te was pointed out that Buddhism taught troversies or disputes but "as the matter is a vital issue, affecting the existence of the Buddhist. religion in Peking and the life and death of our several thousand fellow monks, we must devise ways eat withthe mena: to the bureau, the municipal ernment andthe branch military council and recite Buddhist d until their appeals were heeded, Interviewed this morning garding the agitation of the monks, Mr. Tsai Yuan, director of the bureau, said that it was due toa misunderstanding on the part of the buddhist priests, The regulations stipulated that a temple valued $10,000 would pay mach less. But the monks thought that for every, $10,000 a temple has to pay a fee 810, hence their opposition, The director believed that if the f monks realised their mistake. they would "ease their agitation.—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.