Tsingtao, Aug. 8.
Since the beginning of this month. about 30,000 Chinese, chiefly of the} poorer classes have evacuated Tsingtao by the Kiaotsi Railway alone a a result of the numerous rumours o: the imminent, arrival of Japanese troops. Many households, shops. hotels and every line of native business are experiencing difficulties as a result of depleted staffs. The above figure does not include those w have left by steamer and plane and those who have left the city by foot or cart and car for the country surrounding Tsingtao. A conservative estimate of the total evacuation must be about 80,000.
This evacuation has been brought about as a result of unfounded rumours spread by irresponsible persons and to the fact that the Administration, in taking precautionary measures, commandeered all_native-owned trucks and (buses. Further, talk among local foreigners of their own precautionary measures being overheard by their servants and the fact that the womenfolk and children of many Chinese "holding official capacities have gone 10 Sharighai—explained as merely a precautionary move—has tended to put the wind up many of the native population here and they in turn have helped to turn the whisperings into portentous and fearsome news of impending Japanese landings, and have to "git while the "going was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.