Peking, Aug. 19.
Considerable dissatisfaction has caused at Tientsin by General Tsao Kun's imposing an additional salt tax on wholesale merchants. They will receive salt as before but will pay an additional tax which will involve an increase in retail Prices, inflicting hardship on the poor, reducing the amount consumed and thereby reducing the revenue of the Gabelle, The reorganization of the loan agreement: provides that no provincial official shall be allowed to impose local salt taxes, and in February the President issued a mandate emphasizing this fact and warning provincial officials against such action, General Tsao Kun justifies his action on the grounds that it 1s imperative to raise funds.
An important feature of the case is the fact that General Tsao Kun's action reveals the instability of Chinese securities and therefore damages China's credit.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.