According to the agreement first arrived at between the Russian and Chinese Governments the Municipal Council appointed without election two Chinese who had been previously selected by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The Chinese members proved themselves very antagonistic towards all schemes brought forward for the benefit of the community, and opposed all schemes which would involve more dues being paid by the Chinese. A notable case was the building of a Municipal General Hospital, which, as people must admit, is a necessity to a town. Debates on this subject took place, and every member of the Municipality was in favour of the scheme except the Chinese members, who attended the debates but suddenly disappeared when balloting took place. As their presence was a necessity in order to form
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.