A romance without, benefit of rental consent, and in defiance of traditions of Japan was. bared when Mr, Matajiro Minister. of Commun cations in the Imperial Japanese Government," admitted that a, month ago,' his daughter, Yoshiye, eloped with a poor and' unknown student, is Koizumi and her husband, it Is, announced, are living quietly, in' Tokyo without aid from the Parents of either. The bride of the obscuto student served formerly as} secretary to her father: For a month it had been rumoured - that she had mysteriously disappeared. Today Minister Koizumi admitted that nis daughter had been mar xietl but he refused to divulge the, Adentity of her husband. He also refused to give the address of the couple, who have defied Japanese, 'The new groom, according to "Minister Koizumi, is an orphan without property and social standing but' with "an abundance of e@ for the best—United Press. ambition, The father-in-law. hopes [the members of which have had instructions to travel, but have not volunteered for the journey. Cer fsinly, they are all Soviet citizens but there. are some of them who late afraid that once they get into Soviet. territory they will not be allowed to return to Harbin.
The whole party is travelling in special Pulman car, fitted up with every possible convenience, all the seats, being well padded, mir-tors, electric lamps on the, tables ted" other aid fo, make the journey as pleasant as. possible, being added. 2 Arrangements have been made that the. party shall be met by lerowds of workmen. in every. town hat they visit, and they will be invited to inspect works and. factories, at which special meetings Twill be held and many. speeches made, "It will be interesting to see what the members of the party will Ihave to say when they return from their trip.
"An amusing story is being spread about the corridors of the railway during the last few days, and os the story is borne out by facts, it may be repeated. Tt seems that every [day Harbin received a telegram from a station on the Eastern line reporting whether the water in the river Mudansian was" muddy oF clear.
Tae origin of this extraordinary telegram goes back to the time when Mtv. "Bi manager of the railway. noted us an ardent fisherman, and many were the caricatures which appeared in the papers. regarding him and his fishing propensities.
He never missed a holiday with-lout going out to amuse himself with this sport either on the Eustern or Western line, and it seems gram to Echo station jing the \d|station master whether the water lin the river Mudansian was clear oF muddy. A reply was. re-civ [Water in river is muddy," and again a couple of days later a imilar telegraphic question wes pot land replied to by telegraph.
Following this, Mr, Bisemont gave Instructions: that' a telegram should lbe sent every day reporting the Jstate of the water in the river, 20 [that he would be able to decide whether it was worth while spend-ling a week-end fishing in that trict.
Shortly after this the railway conflict commenced, and in Ju'y of 1929 Mr, Bisemont left Harbin for good. And it was only a few days Jago that the railway administration Jdlscovered that the telegrams regarding the state of the water in the river were being sent daily up to the present time. On the matter' being investigated, the station master was severely re-inded, and now no further fslegrams' regarding the iv /Mudansian will be received in the railway offices.
This reminds one very much of the story of the daisy which grew Jon the lawn in front of the Palace the summer garden in Petersburg, Jwhere once upon a time the Empress Catherine stationed a soldier to see that a solitary daisy which had forced its way through the gross should not be tramped upon Jor, stolen by some child.
The daisy died a natural death, out for more than thirty years there was a. soldier stationed at! this. spot until some official inquired into the necessity of having soldier natroling the lawn, jthereuipon the original instruct wore discovered,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.