A telegraphic dispatch from-Viceroy Tao of Kansu. has been received, reporting the massacre of over thirty Chinese Buddhists by rebel Salah Mahomedans and that. general' con-flag ration is feared with the return of warm weather in April or May, when communication becomes easier, unless a strong army is assembled in Kansu, The Viceroy complained of the withdrawal to Peking of Generals Tung Fi-hsiang and Chang Chun with their best troops whose sanguinary battles for the past 20 years against the Mahomedans have made them greatly feared by the latter, not only in Kansu but also in Chinese Turkestan, and that, in consequence, ihe whole Northwest is practically defenceless and at the mercy of the Mehomedans if they should unite together and rebel. Unless substantial help in men and good officers be sent to Kansu, Viceroy Tao refuses to accept the responsibility should trouble arise.
(Wote:—General Tung Fu-hsiang and his 25,000 well-armed savages were called to Peking, fresh from the massacres of thousands of rebels, almost immediately after the suppression of the Inst great Mahomedan Rebellion of 1896-7, that is to say, in the Into autumn of" 1897. General Chang Chun was General Tang's chief lieutenant during the Mahomedan wars since the seventies. He obtained even greater fame as a fighter than his Chief amongst the rebels and it was entirely due to his presence as Provincial Commander-in-Chief of Chinese Turkestan that the Tunganis there did not join their Kansu brethren in 1896-7. He was called to Peking also by the Empress Dowager soon after the coup d'état, where he arrived last January with from 8,000 to 10,000 of his best troops. If there be any fighting in the near future in Chihli or further south this General will be certain to make a good fight of it, as he is one of the very fow really brave and popular Géenerdls in the Chinese army. All his Sighting has been in the north-west provinces; hence Chang's is not generally known in the east or having been eclipsed by Tso, the has ap his Chief of Staff or Sevio mandant, the troops brought by Chinese Turkestan b Gen the nearly 49,000 men Peking, 24th March.
Secret instructions, by command of the Empress Dowager, were sent yesterday and on the 22nd inst. to the Viceroys and Governors of maritime provinces, to. resist by force. any landing of foreign armed parties of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.