'A Ch'éngtéfu, Chili province, dispatch received at Peking the other day reports the presence of a number of Russians in the Lamamiao district, of Mongolia purchasing large numbers of Mongol ponies. No pretence is made of hiding the warlike bury for which the ponies are intended, the Russians upon being asked even. gain so far in some cases as to tell the Mongol herdsman that the ponies were wanted for fighting the Chinese army should it join the Japanese in fighting Russia. No obstacles were placed inv the way of the Russians as they held passports for the purpose from the Tartar General of the province. It is only in China and among present-day Chinese mandarins that such a thing can be done.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.