Signs of spring are at last in evidence and a spirit of optimism prevails, despite the still unsettled condition of the country, Everywhere the new wheat crop, so nearly doomed by the autumn drought, is reviving after the plentiful snowfall.
The China New. Year was celebrated with the usual ardour, It must have been a great disappoint ment though to the women folk, who at this time usually swarm to the larger centres to show their New Year. clothes and see something of the world outside of their own homes: Everywhere was mud! There is no mud in the world to compare with the mud on these Chinese roads when cut up and mixed by the crunching of the Chinese cart wheels, This is seen" to best advantage and for a longer period of time in the city or village streets. The Chinese shovel the snow out of their courtyards into the streets. Here it is piled four and five feet high and when it melts woe betide the traveller who is forced to journey through the town, Psxinc, Mar. 15.—It is semiofficially reported that various public bodies at Manchuli, Harbin. Heilungkiang and other parts of Manchuria have wired to the Central Government urging them to stand firm on the question <f, the return of the Liaotung Peninsula and reminding them that the lease as originally drawn up should expire on March 2%.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.