slug. 12. for the businessmen interested in Szechuan's, lo, West China is so vast, so remote and so Jittle known thut few, probably, outside it have followed the fortunes. of the past four months fighting and maneuvring. But the significance of the final outcome as described by our Chengtu correspondent's letter to-day is great that it cannot escape gen-notice. Virtually a new kingdom has sprung into existence in west and southwest China, of a total area considerably larger than all France and stending from Kansu to the Siamese frontier and from the shadowy borders of Tibet almost to the centre of the Middle Kingdom. Tuchun Hsiong K'eh-wu has fought his last fight for the independence of Szechuan and has been defeated by the miserable jealousies and lack of patriotism of the men he sought to defend. He is a fugitive, and all the province of Szechuan, with its immense area replete ' with riches of every kind, has passed under the domination of Yunnan' and Kueichow, in other words, of Tuchun Tang Chi-yao, who
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.