Sir Miles Lampson, British Minister to Peking, accompanied his wite and daughter as far as Harbin to see the latter off by the Siberian Express which left yesterday evening. Sir Miles, who is no strand ger to Harbin, having been here when he was High Commissioner 6 Siberia, is staying on here for day or s0 and is to be entertained to-day by the British Chamber of Commerce at luncheon at the Railway Club, whilst in the ey ing, a reception will be held by Mr. Grant Jones, the British Consul. On Tuesday, the Chinese Admit strafer is giving a banquet in his honour. On ataunt of the extreme cold quite a number of itterant Russians have been frozen to death, whilst cases of frost-bite are very numerous, The ambulance of the Central Hospital had a busy time during the month, being summoned many as 185 times, the only other ambulance: belonging to the Police Administration likewise-being much in requisition.
The fire brigade have been very busy of late as well, there being 12 fires the Sth to the 7th instant inclusive. On the first named date, as many as five took place.
'A. most unusual escape from intended death took place last week, when an unemployed Russian attempted to commit suicide by' throwing himself on the railway' tracks in front of an approaching train. According to eye-witnesses the man deliberately lay down on the rails when an engine approached. The engine driver seeing the man, sounded warnings as it was too Into to stop the train, but by a sheer miracle, the Russian was hit by a fender in front of the engine and was turned half round so that he was laid lengthwise between the tracks when the thun-_ dering train rolled overhead. In the meantime the train came to a halt, and the man was picked up and rushed to the hospital. He presently came to his senses, being: Practically unhurt and complained about the inefficiency of modern engineering as soon as he realized he had pot departed from this Two Japanese accompanied by a Mongol, have started on a ride from Manchouli to Tokyo on horseback, in order to see whether it is possible to travel in this manner in the depth of winter. They have sine reached Hailar where they, were forced to rest two days on acount of the intense cold, yet expect to reach their destination before the end of the month,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.