The reports from Japan still speak of Moukden as the
first 'objective of the Japanese Commander-in-Chief. They may be publishing this merely as a blind, though Colonel Maurice agrees that this would be their best course, but the report is made more definite by a story which seems to belong to the a.egion of sensational fiction. It is stated that the Japanese are tempted by their knowledge that a vast treasure, E240,000,000, lies in Moukden, the accumulation of the :Manchu dynasty in the last two centuries. That reads as if it were nonsense, but is not to be so lightly dismissed. The great Mandarins do accumulate large stocks of gold bullion ; a million a year is not an impossible saving for an Emperor of China, and it is quite certain that if the practice of hoarding became an Imperial tradition, it would be adhered to. The family would borrow, rob, or incur defeat rather than break their rule. While, therefore, we regard the amount stated as absurd because such a hoard would be missed from the supply of bullion, and therefore be visible, we think it quite possible that a large mass of treasure of all kinds is accumulated in Moukden, where it would be protected from century to cen- tury by some special guard. It could, of course, be moved before the Japanese arrived, but the Court of Pekin may regard Moukden as impregnable.
