From Our Own Correspondent, Peking, May 2.
In order to come to some understanding of what is proceeding in the war grea it is necessary to discount fully 70 per cent. of rumours heard in Peking. Foreigners and Chinese alike trafic in the wildest improbabilities and profess to believe them, giving authorities for their statements.
April 30 it was stated that the Fengtien troops were driven from Changsintien and that the soldiers were falling back on The city. Yesterday I personally visited this front and found the Fengtien men comfortably settled down on commanding heights, carrying out a reciprocal brisk fusillade with rifles and machine guns through the day with the Chibli troops. Artillery was noc much in evidence and when used it seemed to suffer from bad handling. Not only had the Fengtien forces not been dislodged but they had pushed the Chihli troops back about a mile.
Having traversed the. full length of the Fengtien line to north of where it was reported the Chihli troops were attempting to outflank Fengtien I discovered the reverse was the case. I found the Fengtien commanders fully alive to the probability of the attempted turning movement which they were coun-tracting by extending their lines with adequate numbers of men, supplies and ammunition. The Fengtien troops are all well fed and equipped and marching into action in good spirits. There is a tremendous amount of rifle and machine gun fire out of all proportion to the casualties, which are comparatively few. There were no attacks in yesterday's performance which was composed of firing not fighting There is no reliable news from other fronts though firing is proceeding vigorously.
If the Changsintien front can be taken as a criterion of operations at the present time they bear little relation to real warfare, though this may change when the time comes for decisive action.
Noise-making seems to be the chief aim on both sides just now.
Tientsin, May 1.
The Peking-Mukden Railway is now badly disorganized and it is very doubtful whether the afternoon trams to and from Peking will run.
Peking, May 1.
On the eastern front large Chihli forces from Shantung are proceeding northwards with the intention of joi Wu Pei-fu at Jen-ki concentration is taking place_preparatory to an attack on the Fengtien troops at Machang. This will represent the main operation,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.