CO129-438 - Public Offices - 1916 — Page 466

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460

from Mr. Goffe covering translation of a remarkable article in the local press indicative of the present friendly and apparently trustful attitude of the rebels toward Japan (see my telegram No.103 of yesterday's date).

I regret to have to report that owing to the increasing prevalence of brigandage, conditions in Szechuan are becoming somewhat serious and are beginning to resemble those of the autumn of 1911, when the province was thrown into a state of anarchy by bands of robbers and so-called revolutionaries which

sprang up on all sides. As in that year the dangerous and powerful secret society known as the KOLAOHUI is again rampant and bands of brigands pass raiding and looting from one market town to another. The foreign missionaries, of whom there are a great number in the province, British, French and America, have not so far been seriously molested. Apart from Chungking, direct foreign commercial interests in the province are unimportant; foreign steamers have however been attacked on the Ichang-Chungking run, and traffic on the river may be impeded. The Acting British Consul-General has not failed to bring the matter to the notice of the Governor, but General Chan Yi is of course helpless for the present, all the troops in the province being occupied in facing the Yunnanese on the Yangtze. It will

be remembered that in 1911 conditions became so bad that it

was considered advisable to withdraw the missionaries for a

time. The situation in Szechuan is complicated by the presence of the large Southern force at present in the province, and the possibility of these troops being left to their own resources by the collapse of the Government which sent them there. It is estimated that there are at present some 50,000 Northern troops in the interior of Ssechum and Hunan så reinforcements

continue to be sent. I have the honour to enclose a list

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