Cities Looted and Burned: Gover. ment Tzoops Powerless Peking, Jan. 15.
Messages received from Manchuria indicate that the bandit menace in the Province of Kirin has not yet been overcome. The bandits, after looting and completely burning the village of Kushantze, as already reported, moved off first eastwards and then northwards on January 11. They reached the town of Yangtzeshao that afternoon, and during the night' fought against Government troops that had been sent against them. The skirmish is reported to have been indecisive, but the troops failed. to check the progress of the brigands, who continued to move towards the north. The authorities despatched a further force of 300 mounted troops to' Yangtzeshao, but they seem merely to have followed in the wake of the Hunghutze and not to have entered into conflict with them.
On the afternoon of January 12, the bandits seized the town of Tatuchuan and continued to move northwards, threatening the towns of Hueinanting, Chaoyangchen and even Hailutgfu, the capital of the district. After capturing Tatuchuan they cut all the telegraph wires, so that their subsequent movements are obscure, but, according to the latest reports, they seem to be moving about wherever they wish and the Government soldiers appear so far to be unable to hinder them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.