Peking, June 8.
'A Buddhist monk violates no Jaw by marrying. "This ts the ruling of the Ministry of Interior in reply to a question put by the Bureau of Social Welfare of the Tientsin Municipal Government.
Some time ago the abbot of a Buddhist temple in Tientsin died. Another monk who had broken his
temple property. aroused the Yow of clibac, took charge of the indignation' of the people in the neighbourhood, who fled a petition with the Bureau of Social Welfare, Urging that this monk be expelled from the temple on the ground that had ceased to be a monk by taking a wife Puzzled by the legal aspect of this question, the Bureau of Social Welfare, referred the matter to the Ministry of the Interior and asked for a ruling. The Ministry consulted the legal experts of the Judicial Yuan and decided that the monk in question had violated no law by for~ saking celibacy and that the question whether he should be disqualified from taking charge of the temple is for the Buddhist order to decide. Tt understood that the matter has cow been referred to the Chinese Buddhist Capt. Mathews Given Passage Back to England Canton, June 6.
The long-standing controversy [between the Canton Seamen's Union Jand the Hongkong, Canton, Macao Steamboat Company, over the dis-Imissal of Capt... W. Mathews, was finally settled to-day.
Capt. Mathews, who is British and member of the Union, was. dismissed from his post as skipper of the company's xs. Kinshan. The Union protested against. his nis-missal and threatened to call a strike juntes hho was reinstated, However, through the mediation of the Canton Public Safety Bureau, the controversy was amicably settled to-day, the company agreeing to pay Capt. Mathews the sum of £80 fo: passage back to England, and to pay {he Seamen's Union Hongkong Dollars 1,200. An agreement to this effect Was signed this afternoon.
Following the dismissal of Capt, Mathews, the protest. made by the Seamen's Union threatened 10 develop into a serious affair. addition to threatening th call 2 strike, the Union officials warned the company that the Kinshen. which is on the Canton-Hongkons run, would be boycotted—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.