Peking, Aug. 13.
It is reported -here that President Li Yuan-hung, still technically President in spite of alT arguments to the contrary, is preparing to abandon his claims to office, technical or er wise, and to return to the South asa revolutionary in the hope of arousing popular sentiment against the bogus Chihli administration in Peking. As. a first step in this direction he has checked up his personal fortune of $3,000,000, has endowed his family and relatives in a sort of will and is prepared.to spend about half of the total amount upon revolutionary enterprises.
This radical change in, the course of his career is said to have been the result of a conference which Li Keng-yuan had in Tientsin with a retired official of Anfu persuasion who was. formerly closely associated with Li Yuan-hung in Hankow. This latter person is said to have said to Li Keng-yuan when he came along for advice:
"Tf you and Li Yuan-hung persist in calling yourselves the legal Premier and the legal President and try to organize a campaign to re-establish yourselves in these jobs you will find that everyone will admit your technical] claim but that none will come forward to help you. If you are really anxious for either personal revenge against the Tientsin clique or if you want to break that organization for the good of the country, your best course is a public repudiation of your offices. Go South and announce yourselves og revolutionaries. You can say:
"7, Li Yuan-hung, was the chief supporter of the 1911 revolution at Wuchang; and I, Li Keng-yuan, was one of the pillars of Tsai A-o's Yunnanese revolt against Yuan Shih-kai. Since those days we have come up in the world and we now have every right to call ourselves the President and Premier of China. But we repudiate these titles. Under existing conditions in Peking such titles are more a disgrace than a credit to patriots; so. we emerge again as revolutionaries and call upon the people to support ug as they did in 1911 and in 1916.'
"Tell Li Yuan-hung further to sell his property and endow his family and publicly dedicate what is left to the public cause. Such a step would make a profound impression."
This advice sent Li Keng-yuan away in a very thoughtful mood and igs said to have moved Yuan-hung to the recent transfer of his property, which would indicate that he is preparing to carry out the programme in' ful] as it was outlined to him,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.