A great deal is being made now of the new move by Wu Pei-fu. He is gaining strength and making up new army in the Nanyang area, Tt is estimated that this will be 'a danger to the south of the Kuo min chun that will have reckoned with. It is not many years since Feng Vu-hsiang brought defeat and disaster to the army of Wu Pei-fu in the north when attacking Chang Tso-lin, and it is intimated that perhaps' now is an opportune time for Wu Pei-fu to return in kind some of the help hho then received. Then there also the fact that Liu Chen-hua and Chang Chih-kung are still in their fold areas and may be ready: to turn against the Kuominchun when opportunity "comes. They have changed their colours so often that the only way to be sure vf them received letters from the Dalai Lama saying it Was inconvenient at the present juncture to give permission to enter the "Land of the Lamas." Negotiations have now been proceeding for over one year and the result appears to be as above stated. No doubt attempts will still be made and the Dalai Lama may again be approached to allow the mission to proceed. Patience and tact are being! exercised and may finally be rewarded. There fs still sufficient interest and influence at the Lhasa court materially to help the _present Mission and the young Chinese members may yet see themselves enjoy residence in the "Forbidden Land."
The Fascination of Tibet Strange as it may seem, some of the young men forming part of the new Buddhist movement, find themselves, consciously or unconsciously, obsessed by the fascination to see something of the "Great Closed Land." Tibet has always been mystetious, and its mysteries have been the mystic attraction of Judged by the way the young men have studied Lamaism here on the frontier their further studies in the ly, on the struggling young republic of China. The Tibetans, lama and Iayman, take a lively interest in Chinese affairs and at present are following very keenly the internecine struggle. The "Land of the Lamas" has a strange and interesting explanation to offer for China's present chaos. China, Tibet maintains, has forsaken its gods:—religion has been disregarded; temples have been de-secreted, and priestly property apthis they maintain is sufficient to bring trouble and disaster on any nation.
Balden Lhamo, of whom Queen 1g] Victori is supposed to be an inearmn, is a most popular goddess in the "Forbidden The animal on which this Indy canters up and down Tibet had an ass as its father, mare as its mother, and itself is a lo. It is known as the "three Tegs" or the "three origins." This goddess, Balden Lhamo, it is reported, is prayed to to-day by the lamas of over a thousand lamaseries all lover the "Land of the Lamas." They' Pray that peace and quietness may be maintained in Tibet and to effect this Balden Lhamo has caused a wide spirit of unrest to take possession of the collection of illegal taxes and in some places the taxes for the year 29 of the Chinese Republic have alrendy been collected, The Tibetans have invented many ingenious methods for the collection of taxes sand the taxgatherers in the Republic fare not far behind. A tax is allectfed when the opium seed is planted; another tax is collected when the seed] ventures above ground; and when! foliage adorns this beaultitul plant snather, taxis gathered in, The accra imply. come and when the trait begins to grow, The people are prepared to pay any legitimate tax on anything, but they are strongly objecting to tax on pig's food. In some places the Peasant riots are assuming danger-ows proportions, and in turn prove a menace to the safety of the district. Power it the wrong hands, especially in the cast has always been a danger to the public weal.
A compete new set of stamps has been issued for Mongolia, on which! the currency has been changed from dollars and cents to "mung" and will be to treat them ay it is reported Tien Wei-chun has been treated. In any case it is the opin-of our informants that the Kuominchun are not likely to make much of a drive north of the Yellow River. Meantime they are too short of arms and munitions for an_ immediate drive, The Yellow River bridge is rendered useless, and the bridge parts are in the hands of the Fengtien forces who retreated to the northern bank some time ago.
The present organization of the Ast, 2nd, and 3rd Kuominchun is not of the character that could make a successful drive against a formidable foe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.