Reuter forwards a telegram (August 27) from St. Petersburg which
will require a great deal of confirmation, but which is curiously suggestive. Yakoob Khan, the ruler of Kashgar, who has long been threatened by the Chinese, has assumed the offen- sive, and is " capturing Chinese towns one after another with- out resistance from the inhabitants." They are apparently waiting for the Chinese Army which was ordered to attack Kashgar three years ago, but has not reached its destination, " having been obliged to build quarters, sow grain, and await the harvest," in order to provide food for the march. The statement cannot be true, for the Chinese troops can levy requisitions on very fertile provinces, but it exactly describes the method of Chinese con- quest, the campaigns undertaken as if they were to occupy life, the marches which resemble the roll forward of nations into un- occupied lands. No account of Yakoob Khan's conquests has been telegraphed from India.
