Poisoned Rice

Twenty-seven students and teachers of the normal school at Hangchow were killed, ten are in a precarious condition, and more than 200 are ill as the result of eating poisoned rice.

Chemists who examined rice left in the pot said enough poison had been used to wipe out the entire community.

At the official investigation into the deaths, Chien Ah-Li, a discharged cook, said that his fellow conspirator, Pi Ho-Song, stole a bottle containing a white powder from the chemical laboratory of the school and dumped the contents into the rice pot. It appears that both men were recently discharged and took this simple way of giving vent to their grievance.