In consequence the Kiao-Tsi Railway now has a serious shortage of freight cars. For the past three months the line has been without 120 cars commandeered by the mil tary authorities and has had gre difficulty' in meeting traffic demands, especially since this period is the busiest of the whole year. Further loss of rolling stock is disastrous. Furthermore, it may entail suffering because of insufficient facilities to move foodstuffs. Local officials. are expected to voice a strong protest.
A Joy-ride Round Tsingtxo Jan. 25.
The fourth and fifth steamers. carrying soldiers returned ostensib. ly to their homes in Shangtung by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, were docked to-day after an en-foreed wait for more than 24 hours in the harbour because of the wharf employees being on a holiday. Railroad officials place the number of troops in all just below 15,000. Like the others who arrived earlier in the week they immediately marched into ing trains which were des. patched to Tsinas The first lot of 4,500 soldiers left for Pukow shortly after arriving there last Wednestay; so did the second and detachments of 2,500, each arriving at the provincial capital on Friday and yesterday.
All Back (0 Lu, evident that the whole 15,000. soldiers will shortly be enrolled again in the service of. Lu Yung-hsiang. that _the gentry: -accomplished" a twofold purpose in shipping "the soldiers from that oily. In the first place they rid their city of an internal menace and in the second place they knew that they were giving aid to'Lu Yung-hsiang, whom they are said to prefer to 'Chi Hsieh-yuan or Sun Chuan-fang. For the soldiers it has meant a thousand-mile journey with plenty of food and fresh air and freedom from the confinement of a detention camp. They will return' to the fighting zone with renewed vigour. Alli are not averse to serving under Lu Yung-hsiang once more, Lu is uniformly popular with his soldiers, it is said here.
Another matter on which inguiry ing Tsingtaonese would like to be: enlightened is whether all of these deported soldiers were Shantungese. There is a disposition here to think the contrary, 'These mien are hardy, seasoned veterans, some of whom' have been campaigning in China's battles for years. They may not know what it is all about but they are provided with "three squares" a -day and that is the chief desideratum according to their viewpoint. hi Shantungese are breathing sighs of relief that these redoubtable farriers have been despatched to the fighting zone again as they would have been a serious menace to the province under present conditions if they had elected to remain in Shantung. This is the off season in agriculture and there industrial work for these unskilled hands, The Railway Suffers Severely The big loser by the decision of the Shanghai Chamber to send these troops to Tsingtao is the Kino-Tsi Railway. The railway,—naturall has been under the necessity of providing rolling stock to transport these detachments out of Tsingtuo, Eighty ears were used by the firat tingent, 35 by the second, the same number by the third and 77 bby the fourth, now steaming toward Tsinan, The 80 cars in the first lot were ordered to be turned over to the Tai pu Railway at Tsinan upon thei arrival there. The stationmaster refused and the military authorities sent armed soldiers to seize them.
The next lot the stationmaster, acting under instructions from railway headquarters here, was able to detain, the military authorities managing to scrape together enough Tsin-Pu cars in which to ship the men to Pukow. The authorities then seized the next Int of 35 despite the remonstrances of the Kiao-Tsi Railway authorities, It is expected here they will commandeer the 77 arriving there to-
In losing these 192 cars, all standard-size box-ears, if only for a short time, and the prospects are that it may be considerably longer before the Tsin-Pu Railway returns by past occurrences, Kino-Tsi Railway sustains revere loss and one that will have a disastrous effect. on shipping along the line, With only about 100 box ears now available the needs of the shippers can in no way be eared for, Thousands of Sun's Soldiers Moving on Ihsing From Our Ows Contesroxpent, Huchow, Jan, 25.
Thousands of troops and great quantities "of supplies have been passing through or leaving Huchow during the past few days, moving towards Changhsing and Thsing. Practically all boats in the city and surrounding country have been commandeered. Attempts have also been made to obtain the use of foreign mission boats. The cook in one of the foreign homes is cone of the many men impressed by the soldiers for service at the front.
Over 70 refugees from Wusih arrived at the Union Hospital yesterday and' are being cared for' there. They had a narrow escape from the soldiers who visited their homes in the looted and burning city across the lake. Several hundred more fugitives are reported to be coming this way for shelter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.