Blaze on Ship Laden with Troops Proposed Autonomous State: and Munitions Potential Wealth Tsingtao, Nov. 25. chapter in the history of Tvingtao closes with the arrival today in Shanghai of the str. Tientsin Maru, carrying the late Mayor of the Tsingtao Special Area, General Wo Shu-yn, whose military transports, carrying 1,200 gendarmes preceded him south on Friday an SatuPtay.
One of the transports, the str. Yuen-tah, which was crowded with troops and carrying munitions, caught fire at seven o'clock on Friday evening as the result of a lighted cigarette being carelessly thrown on the deck while the vessel was tied to one of the wharves here.
The alarm was given by the Customs boarding officer, Mr. Abbott, who summoned the fire brigade, which arrived promptly on the! scene and flooded the decks, manag-to extinguish the fire by 9) o'clock.
There were detonators and shells aboard and much anxiety was caused by the fact that the stern of the vessel was close beside the other transport. Three soldiers and one fireman fell down the hold, but} were only slightly injured.
Later the fire brigade commenced pumping out the water in the vessel and successfully completed this task] fat 6 o'clock on Saturday morning, the transport sailing at 1.30 in the afternoon.
General Ma Pu-hsiang, the well-known Kansu Mohammedan leader, is at present Mayor of Tsingtao—
New York, Oct. 28.
Brido Bidjan, the proposed Jewi autonomous republic in Eastern Siberia, north of Manchuria, is a vast empire in the making, according to a report by the American Expert Commission to Ibor, the Jew: colonization organization. The commission assigned by Ibor to investiga ate the colonization possibilities of the territory reported that the "territory has many natural resources which can be made to give great agricultural and industrial wealth to sustain large numbers of homes. There scorns to be no reason why this region should not develope into a well populated area and its settlers into a prosperous people.
The commission reported that the sual difficulties awaited pioneers and advocated the planting of root crops, potatoes, rice and legumes.
The commission, which returned recently, consisted of Franklin Hai ris, President of Brigham Young. University; J. B. Davidson, Dean of Agriculture, Towa State College; Benjamin Brown, Marketing Director of the Utah State Farmers Co-
Operative; Charles Kuntz, Sociologist of Columbia University; I. Tal-my, General Secretary of Ibor; and Kiefer Sauls, Secretary of Brigham Young University.
Brido Bijan will be declared an autonomous republic when 5,000 families have settled on the land.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.