Huge Proclamations, re the Railway from Tongking, have been issued by the new Viceroy Wei. The ple are exhorted to be quiet, Trouble looms ahead, for the Southerners swear they will die before they allow the French to build a political railway to their capital. Will the mandarins be strong enough to keep the peace? The Governor of Tongking, M. Doumer, is reported to have said that many of the people in Yunnan—not Chinese—would prefer French rule to the present state of things. This can only apply to the Mahomedans, many of whom would gladly deluge Yunnan in blood so that they might revenge the sufferings of thirty years ago. Not long ago the most prominent Mahomedan military official in one of the Yunnan districts visited mo quietly at night, and begged mo to introduce his clan to either the French or English. If supplied with arms and money, he promised that they would to a man support any foreign invasion of the province. If any Foreign Power fostered such a spirit as this, and took advantage of such a feeling to further its schemes of conquest, then it would deserve the contempt of all humanity. May our fair and peaceful province be spared the shedding of blood.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.