Owing to. the illness of the Tartar General, Tsing Chri," Ting Chieh, the Civil, Governor of Moukden has" been appointed Acting Tustar General pro tdm.—Russians ure trying hard to purchase horses in Manchuria, but so far, with but indifferent success. As an instance, from a call for 3,000 ponies, at sixty roubles tach, only a third could be procured, composed of ery poor animals." in view of the Rrarcity the Russians had to rest content. The cause of this dearth of good ponies: is, of course, the unpopularity of the Rus-'Stans among "the people of, Manchuria who took time by the forelock in the early past of Febroay last by driving all their erses, and cattle also, to regions west of North' Chinchou and inside the Great Wall.—About the middle of this mouth a well-armed band of 500 Hunghutze bandits suddenly attacked a number of Russian patrols in the vicin of Liaoyang and Haichény and after annihilating the majority of them, it cut down many miles of telegraph lines and also tore up several miles of railway ties. The last were formed into bonfires and the rails piled on them, thus destroying the latter's future usefulness. is felt at the timidity of the Government in desiring to observe neutrality instead of boldly joining Japan in ousting the Russians from Manchuria. This feeling, iv is reported. is also held both Viceroy Yuan and General Ma Yii-kun and the other day alleged to have culminated into a joint neemorial to the Throne in which it is de~ clared that since Russia has been repeatedly violating Chinese neutrality west of the Liao, China has no alternative except to join Japan, "the natural ally of China," without. further delay.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.