Yielding a nominal allegiance to the Tupan are the forces of three Teaders in the south and the south-the post of Commissioner for the extirpation of brigands, in this-and other provinees.
There may be another reason however, of a more direct political significance, than merely finding a position for General Sun, outside the province of Chili, or the seattering of brigands, however meritorious that may be.
The Prize of Hugh sneral Hu Ching-ili is credited ith a certain ambition to occupy the comparatively more wealthy province of Hupeh. Almost daily the public has been treated to reports of the probable clash between him and Governor Hsiao Yao-nan. There certainly has been more than a grain of truth in these reports, because the coming of the Th-chun into Honan finds no other explanation apart from this. When General Sun refused his ment to the civil governor Honan, it was on the pi Honan' could not support both and the Tupan's forces. The ge! eral feeling at the time was that th of these leaders were men of ich mental ability and strength of will that it would be pleasing to neither to divide the authority in one province. The excuse of General Sun for not coming was, how-fever, deemed sufficient at the time. Then General Mi, with his several divisions, moved in and the Tupan immediately became a military power of the first significance.
Thus far T have not mentioned the forces of General Han Vu-kuen in the west. The several reports T have had of his strength, him thr 'a half divisions.
When he left Kaifeng at the command of Sun Yueh's chief-of-staff, it was supposed that Sun was ig to occupy his office, moved back along the Lung-Hai as far as Loyang and the very com-odious barracks formerly erected by Yuan Shib- and latterly' occupied by Marshal Wu Pei-fu, during his regime in Honan, 1 mentioned in my late letter that one of General Han's own recruits assured me that his master has added very greatly to his strength, by receiving the defeated troops from the north that retreated into the west of the province. Not only.
but it is said that Chang Teh-the brigand chief of the Honan Self-governing army," and perhaps others of his ilk, now acknowledge Han as their chief. This young man most solemnly asserted that it is believed in Gen-feral Han's ranks that he has 170 companies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.