Wuchang, Mar, 3.
The question of who is to be lected Song Chang, or Provincial Givil Governor, is still being tated both within and without the 'Assembly. The latter body. is divided into two parties, known as the Ping Shoe (8 it') and the Wei Shoe (ff ji), roughly cor responding to Liberals and Con servatives, The latter party are "Sanxious to proceed at once with the election of Mr. Ho Pel-yung. But the former party, the Ping Shao, are more inclined to be swayed by outside opinion, which is strongly opposed to the Assem-lily's taking the matter into its own hands. Since Mr. Ho is a very wealthy man, there is strong suspicion that the'members of the Assembly expect him to buy their votes at a heavy price, and so, as one of the native papers expresses {t, there will be "a long night with many dreams, and the foreigners will seo and laugh at us." This criticism is an. interesting indication.
The popular objections to Mr.
Peixyung, as expressed in the native press, are that, as former Provincial Civil Governor, he sha responsibility in the misrule the Tuchun Wang Chan-yuan, that. during his subsequent career as Director of Mines very large sums of public money have been unaccounted for. Objections are similarly brought against Chang
the House of Representatives at Febsligh, the late Vice-Speaker Peking, on the ground that he took leading part in the corrupt election of Tsao Kun as President. The most popular candidate appears to be Tang Hsiang-ming, who was the nominee of President Li Yuan-hung, and against whose character there' are no particular charges. If the Assembly will consent to elect him, the choice will find popular favour, and the only trouble will be with the military dictators who are at present in charge of the provines
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.