Admiral ° Shen, Commander-in-
Chief of the Northeastern fleet, tas recently been - inspecting the Sungari flotilla, the naval dockyards, where the gunboats sunk during the conflict, were brought ud repaired and where other buildings in going on and where is the Naval College, He also was entertained by the management of the Northeastern Steamship Ca. which semi-official undertaking, and napeeted seme vessels of thei Jarge fleet, Admiral Sun announced that the fleet was to be considerably enlarged, and that some marines and tailors were to be drought from Tsingtao to man the new units, Mukden has voted a sum of five million dollars for improvements to the Sungari fleet, which within short time will be Apparently the Chinese here are! taking a leaf from the Czarist regime in Harbin in the matter of building conspicuous churches, for now the town borists of several well-haut and modern temples. These will all be eclipsed by the manificient Confucian Temple, which has taken two years to complete. It is the only one of its kind in the whole Manchuria and resembles a palace of the ancient Manchu, The completion ceremony will short. ly be held under the auspices of the Department of Education of the Special Area.
'The number of influential Japan-"se of all possible pursuits who: continue to visit Harbin in a never= ending stream, ix really quite rkable and' shows how much more the Japancss are interested in North "Manchuria than other nationalities. Among these visitors an assistant of a Mr, Imamoto, who though aged 70, is intereste in the finding of a cache, said to contain several million roubles. in gold somewhere in. Siberia. This old was taken by Czarist officials in 1917 from the branches of the State Bank at Petrograd. Moscow, Kazan, and Kharkofl to Siberia to 'a locality said to-be known to the Japanese. The story of this secret. hoard was carried by several former Russian officers who went to Japan eight years ago, but it was only daring the last year or so that. they let out the secret, telling the story to the Into Baron Okura, Japan's multi-millionaire, who urn told it to Mr, Imamoto, who: was so interested at the time that he came to Harbin himself in order to verify it.
Gotting full confirmation that the cache was made, Mr. Imamoto returned to Japan. and worked out A project which has resulted in an assistant of his coming to Harbin and proceeding to Siberia, An interview has been given to local Russian papers by the Ji ese Adviser of the Taonan-T
Railway, who stated that the latter would soon be a venous competitor stern and Southern estimated that some of export freight would forwarded on the new Chinese Railway from the "Anta district alone. He explained that as the S.MR, had given twenty million yen to the new railway for its construction, it had been stipulated that a Japanese councillor should have a place on the Railway Board. He likewise announce that a branch-me was contemplated between Ts non to Solunshan, a town in Heilungkiang and that the distance was 120. kilometres. This branch me would also draw away consid able freight from the GER. As the Chinese Railway freight rates all in Harbin currency and the CER, in gold yen, it was an easy matter for the former successfully to compete with the latter.
According to latest Japanese reports, German capital is coming: into Manchuria, the proposition put. forward by the German Industrialists who visited Manchuria at the ently part of the year for the financing of the new railways in Manchuri approved Mukden, tra Japanese, insomuch that most of the orders for railway supplies both during construction and oper will be going to Germany.
From a purely impartial point of view the influx of German capital will do everybody good. indirectly, for the rapid building of new ra ways is essentially for the development of this territory. It will also give a fillip to German trade in these parts which is at the moment of writing most inactive.
The Czecho-Slovak firm Skoda Works, which has been during the past few years considerable orders from the C.E.R, and other undertakings in North Manchuria, has recently reduced its Harbin' staff considerably, whilst the manager has also left. They are forced to stop their activities with their shipbuilding yard. according to instructions received by the local authorities from Mukden, who likewise demanded that the Skoda Works to pay $20,000 for having opened this undertaking without getting the permission of Mukden, it being prohibited for foreign firms to have shipyards or docks in China's in-Tand waters.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.