It was reported on Sunday, on authority for which we cannot vouch, that the Chinese naval officials had taken possession of a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition brought down from the north on the Russian refugee flotilla. The story which has gone the round of the Chinese and foreign press is that militarists of the South attempted to purchase the guns of the Russian ships, together with their supplies of small arms and ammunition, at a figure variously estimated above $1,000,000. That such an attempt to purchase has been made can searcely be doubted in view of the Soviet advertisement authorized from Peking disputing ithe title of those in charge, and warning possible purchasers of the ships and their equipment that a sale would not be valid. Intervention by the Northern authorities has put an end to possible complications in this respect. As has been reported during last week, a number of the refugees who have landed in Shanghai have come under police notice for bringing arms and ammunition with them, but in this way only a comparatively small] proportion of the weapons seems to have been disposed of.
The whole story is an unfortunate one and, with the departure of the vessels for the south the last has not been heard of it. The majority of the refugees one ashore, and will remain after the vessels have departed, taking with them very few people other than the ships' crews and their families. The rest remain to complicate an extremely difficult. position.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.