It has been decided to erect a line from Laotokow to Heian Fu thus connecting the West and Nort est with Hankow and hanghai direct instead of circuitously via Taiyuan Fu and Paoting Fu as hitherto. These for this needed advance perial Telegraph has become itapatient with the utterly unworkable arrangements in Paoting Fu where there are two station and all messages have to be conveyed from one to the other by line will ie the Imperial line independ-post-messenger, and retransmitted. The new
ent of the other company so far as coast trafic is concerned. Then the extension outwards to connect with Russian lines necessitates a shorter route to Shanghai than the present northern one vid Tientsin. It is also stated that the Government contemplate a further extension along the western frontier connecting Tibet and outer Mongolia directly with Peking, In these extensions no foreigner is to be employed.~ I met iti Hsian Fu a gentleman who represented himself as " special deputy " sent to superintend the work. He would not answer any questions bearing upon the attitude of his Government towards Russia or the son for extending the line to border. He seemed quite that China must move with civilisation or cease to be,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.