A Navking dispatch states that on the night of the 27th instant Viceroy Wei Kuang-tao received a secret telegram from Peking informing H. E. that the relations between Japan and Russia were strained to the point of breaking avd that has ilities might begin at any moment. In view of this H. E. was com: anded to be prepared for every emergency within his jurisdiction in the Yangtze. Viceroy Wei accordingly sent word the same night for the chief ofthe military secretariat of the Liangkiang province, Taotai T'ao Sen-chia, and several commanders of brigades who are stationed in Nanking, to a conference as to the defences of the Yangtze and concerning the immediate dispatch of a certain number of troops tothe North. It was fully daybreak before the conference broke up. There is considerable military activity round about Nanking while instructions have been flashed on to the troops and forts at Kiangyin and at Chinkiang. It it believed that similer notifications were sent from Peking at the same time to all the Tartar Generals, Viceroys, and Governors in the country.
His Honour Yuan Taotai of this port left this for Soochow on Bon-day afternoon for an interview with Governor En Shou of this province and is expected to return here to-morrow forenoon.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.