DIARY OF THE WORLD'S

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 259, 25 July 1908, Page 10

DIARY OF THE WORLD'S

• NEWS. ? WEEKLY SUMMARY BY MAIL. • The following weekly summary of tho world's ne\ys is taken from tho "Daily Mail" Overseas Edition of June 13; — JUNES. Mr. Roosevelt's plans for a year's big-gamo : hunting in British East Africa aro semiofficially announced from Washington. Tho . Prcsidont—his term of office onded—will, accompanied by his son Kormit, loavo Now York for Cairo in April next. Ho will proceed to Mombasa, taking with him a largo assortment of arms and a number of guides and hearers. , Tho publication • of tho President's plans at this juneturo has a certain political significance. It is designed to show tho futility of tho efforts of those who persist in believing that they would bo acting in accordance with tho President's wishes in organising a "stampede" at tho Republican National Convention in favour of his nomination for a third time. Lieutonant-Commander Assmann and Lieutenant Fritzsche, two well-known naval officers, were victims of a tragic motor-car accident noaT Brunswick, Gormany. A third membor of their party, Lieutenant Elmenborst, lies in hospital dangerously injured. Lieutenant Fritsche was driving a GO-h.p. German car at a high speodalong a country - road , when suddenly lie applied tho brakes to avoid colliding with a girl advancing from tho opposite direction on a bicyclo. Tho car spun twico round in a complete circle, and was thrown with tremendous force- against a heavy hoarding. The car turned over, pinioning Lieutenant Fritzsche underneath. He diod ten minutes later from fracture of the breast-bone and concussion of the brain, and an hour later Commander Assmann expired.

Twonty' thousand persons, including 5000 bachelors, attended tho annual feto given ! b.v the marriageable maidens of the littlo village of Ecaussines-Lalaing, Belgium. Many Ecaussiues maidens have been married in consequence of those annual fetes. Lunch was served in tho open air, and tho menu was very simple by way of em- • phasising - tho domestic efficiency of tho spinsters. On tho conclusion of tho luncheon Mllo. Baron, the eighteen-year-old president of tho . spinsters' socioty, appeared on tho balcony of a house overlooking the market-place, 1 and .delivered an address on the joys of matrimony, ■ which was loudly applauded. "Makeyour • choice, gentlemen,"-concluded Mile. Baron. , "Marriago is a lottery, but in Ecaussines all the lots are prizes." A ball took place in tho evening, and •by the tiino ; tho festivities we're concluded a number : of spinsters announced: that they had found ■ prospective husbands. .

'Work has boon started two miles north-west ' of Houston, Texas, by a syndicate with a preliminary capital or £30,000 to unearth buried cities, believed to lie in Harris County. Professor Braissons, who is interested in tho syndicate, declares that tho work will provo that Texas was peopled like Mexico, with Aztecs and Toltccs. Major Gorard, who invented tho folding bicycle, and who formod tho first, cyclist corps of tho French Army in 1895, has died at Montmorency (Seine-et-Oiso), Franco. JUNE 6. -. A telegram from Lisbon says that a plot ■ against all the members of the Portuguese Royal Family has : been discovered! Most ' of the plotters arrested,, belong ;to .'.the same socret society of which ,the assassins of tho King and Crown Princo in Feb- : ruary woro members. The attempt on tho Royal Family : was, it is ' believed, : to havo taken place on Juno 18, during an annual ■ celebration at tho Church of Estrella. A sinister .fact in connection with the affair is tho discovery of a workshop for the manufacture of bombs in a secluded house on the outskirts of the capital. '•

Queen Amelio has presented to Lieutenant . Francesoo Figuiera, who is an ox-orderly : • officer of King Carlos, the • sword _ which tho monarch was wearing at the timn of his death, and which is still stained with blood. Lieutenant Fibuiera has beon appointed Governor of Macao. Lieutenant Figuiera was attending King Carlos at tho timo of thb assassination, and was severely wounded in an. attempt' to capturo one of tho assassins. ' ■ Germany's trade with. Japan and. China totalled a valuo of '£13,000,000 in 1907, cornpared, with £12,500,000. in the previous year.. :la, 1907 tho" value of tho" German trade with Japan exceeded for tho .first timo that. of. the trado with, China. . Tho death is announced iu -Brussels . of M.' Jef. Lambeaux, tho eminent'' Belgiansculptor. Ho was born at Antwerp in 1852, and his work was remarkable for a powerful and highly-coloured realism. The province of Azerbiian, in , tho north of Persia,'! is determined to' live up to its reputation. Fearing that they may ibe ' called upon to suffer tho consequences of the Kurdish raid into Russian territory, tho citizens of Tabriz, -capital of tho : province, havo decided '.to proclaim ihoir autonomy- under German protection. Serious rioting is reported to havo taken : place in Teheran. Princo Zill-es-Sultanob, the Shah's uncle and rival, has been cast into prison. He was the ringleader of a conspiracy against the Shah. Several high dignitaries summoned to Bagh-Shah undor pretence-of an audience with tho Shah havo also been arrested, including Princo Djel-ed-Dowleb, Sirdar-el-Mansur, and Ala-ed-Dowleh. M. Robert Esuault Peltorie, a gentleman of . independent means andi.an expert aeroplanist,l has achieved a very successful ilight on his property at Buc, near Versailles, covering, 1300 yards at an average height of 120 ft. from the ground. M. I'elterie's machine is of tho monoplane type—possessing only one surface. Important alterations are-about to bo begun in tho port of Havre, Franco, at a cost of nearly three and a half millions sterling. An basin, surrounded by .' two aiid a' half miles of quays, will bo constructed ;in the estuary of tho Seine. The new dock .will bo without gates and open to the tide, so that the biggest liners can enter and leave at any moment, the draught allowed for being 40ft. Tho whole will bo completed by a dry dock 1000 ft. long by 114 ft. broad. JUNE 8. Borlin's' mysterious band :of incendiaries, who hayo terrorised tho populace by caus- . ing more than five hundred fires during the past two, months, made a- dastardly, attempt to burn down; a Catholic • church crpwded with worshippers at tho WhitMonday Mass. The desperate determination of tho incendiaries was revealed by tho finding of twelvo fire-brands, soaked with petroleum, distributed at various points in tho roof, which was tho first portion of. tho church to; take fire. Tho building which it was planned to destroy was the St. Paul's local house of worship of-tho Dominican monks in tho Moabit quarter. The Mass was Hearing its end when word was brought to Father Bonaventura that tho church was on fire. Father Bonaventura tip-toed over to a follow priost, who was the main celebrant, and asked him to declare tho sorvico abruptly at an end. Tho roof of tho building was by that timo already aflame, and tho firo brteado was on its way to tlio church. Father Bonaventura and tho other priests then calmly, descended from the altar, walked down the different aisles, and in quiet whispers suggested to each powful of peoplo that perhaps they had better leave, as some little blazo had been discovored in a ronioto section of tho building. With splondid discipline, tho worshippers, numbering ovor 2000, and including hundreds or women .and children, filed out of the building without the semblance of a panic. Tho roof and belfry wero wrecked.

An oxplosion caused by the ignition of sacks of celluloid' resulted in the-deaths of eighteen, people at the Soilor Celluloid factory ,in the Otta Kring district of .Vienna. .

JUNE 9. The reign of Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Morocco, nppoars to bo near its end unless European support is given him. His elder brother, Mulai Hafid, who proclaimed himself Sultan of tho whole kingdom at Murrakesh, tho southern capital, has now entered Fez, the northern capital, amid tho acclamations of tho populace and tho surrounding tribes. Meqmnoz, Morocco's third capital, is tho usurper's, and a Halidist army of 20,000 men is reported to bo assombled there. Tho plight of Abdul Aziz is a desperate one. Having left Fez for Rabat ho finds himself without resources in tho city on .tho coast, whilo ■ his rival's cause progroSECS by leaps and bounds. Recently his army loft llabat ■ to reassert the Sultan's authority in Fez. It was harassed by hostile tribes, and tho , greater part of it deserted. Scarcely a ; tenth of its 7000 men straggled back to Sallee. Tangier is tho last of the £reat cities to maintain oven nominal allogianco to the Sultan, who • has dispatched ,500 troops thither to keep in check tho llafidist tendencies of the'population. Keen public interest is taken in the circumstances of tho explosion in tho starboard engine-room of tho cruiser Tennessee whilo ongaged in a speed trial off tho Califor? nian coast. Four men wore killed and ton injured, of whom two died after tho arrival of the Tennessee at San Pedro. Rear-Admiral Sebreo had a narrow escape, as ho passed through tho fore-room . on a tour ,of inspection less than 'a minuto before the explosion. When making twen-ty-one knots an hour, and the steam-gaugo showing a pressure of 2301b., a pipe burst. Special interest attaches to tho accident because in November, 1906, charges were filed at Pittsburg against officers of tho Shelby Tube Company, specifying twelve warships, among them the Tennessee, as being furnished with defective tubes. . It was alleged that tubes rejected by tho ; Government inspectors were filed down and treated so that the dofccts wero hidden. The jury disagreed when tho charges were tried last year at Pittsburg, but tho Fedoral Prosecutor there states that if investigation shows that tho charges are wellfounded he will re-open tho eases.

A Lindau (Lake Constance) tolegram states that a largo rock fell on a passing train . near Bregenz, striking the last carriago and carrying tho throe carriages in. front of it as well into tho River Ach,- near the Swiss-Austrian . frontier. Twenty, persons wore.injured and two are missing..

During 1 a long wait for a quorum in tho Washington House of Representatives the members amused themselves by singing "Home Sweot Home," " Way Down Upon the Swanco River," and "My': Old Kentucky Home." JUNE 10. ' Botwcen Juno 3 and Juno 7 the Japanese troops had twenty-six engagements with Korean insurgents,' in whicli 113 insurgents were killed and .twenty-six made prisoners. Tho Japanese casualties are not given.... The Japanese f troops bavo now had' 146 engagements with tho ' Koreans during tljo last four weeks of what has been termed the war of extermination. Four million pounds is to be spent in converting Valparaiso into a first-class port by constructing breakwaters and jetties. Tho whites employed in tho melon district of Los Angeles, California, attacked and • demolished : a Japanese wagon, tho occupants of which were injured. A crowd of Japanese was also stoned at Brawley . arid several persons wore severely-injured, i A number of whites have been arrested. The whites resent tho Japanese invasion of tho Imperial Valley.

Tho death is announced of Mr. Oliver 11. ;C. Belmont, tho American financier and ' politician, who underwent an operation ! for appendicitis last week. Mr: Belmont ' was formerly Democratic Congressman for .tho Thirteenth Now York District. He : was in his fiftieth year, and one of .the best-known men in New York. . The death is announced of M. Marie Louis. Gaston Boissier, perpetual secretary of tho Academic Franchise. M. Boissier, who had ; been' secretary of tli'o Academy since 1895, was eighty-six years of age. . Ho was famous moro particularly for his writings on classical subjects. JUNE 11. A most brilliant audience of more than two thousand of the best-known people in Paris attended tho Opera gala performance in . aid of tho benevolent fund of the Society of Dramatic Authors and Musical Com- . posers, to help which Mme. Melba crossed . the Channel and Signor Caruso the Atlantic, while Mme. Pctrenko, the Russian contralto, travelled all tho way from St. Petersburg. Tho result of such a gathering of operatic talent is shown by the receipts, which roached tho great total of £5400. It appears that when expenses have been paid' more than £4000 will bo left for the aged pensioners of the Authors' Society, when tho socioty inaugurates its home, which, thanks to tho munificeuce of Dr. Baron Henri do Rothschild, is ■ about to be built in a park on a fine plateau overlooking Paris.' A fow niiiiutes after nino o'clock the President of : the Republic and Mme. Fallieres appeared in their box, and, after the "Marsoillaise," tho first bars of Verdi's "Rigoletto'' wero heard. First it was Signor Caruso's tun with tho well-known air of thefirst act, . which tho audience received with thunderous applause When in the ecoud act Blind. Melba mado her appearance enthu- . siasm knew no bounds. ■ At the end of the act sho had to come to tho front and bow again and again. The enthusiasm of tho audience was boundless. ■ Mmo. .. Melba, Signor Caruso, M. Renaud, and Mme., Petronko were all recalled several

• times 'at the end of tho performance. Tho Russian Duma has refused, by i 94 votes 'to 78, to grant the money asked for naval reconstruction. The object of this refusal was ; not to prevent tho reconstruction of the, fleet, which Russia badly needs, but to empliasise the urgent necessity for a radical reform of the Ministry, of' Marino, without which, it is held, it is futile to grant money for shipbuilding

purposes. : The latest addition to the Toyo Kisen Kaidia fleet of Pacific liners has, just arrived in Yokohama Harbour from the ' Nagasaki builders ready 1 for her maiden voyage to Honolulu and San Francisco. This vessel is the Tenyo Maru, _of 14,000 tons, triple screw, and turbine-driven. The Tenyo Maru is floating .testimony, to Japan's advance in an industry .in which she no longer requires foreign instructors. , The ship is the work of the . Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Company at Nagasaki—the only yard which could turn out such , a it'is but recently that the company's last European draughtsmen and ■ engineers were discharged. The recent heavy rains have caused terrible floods' in Montana, U.S.A. Hundreds of square miles are under water; 7000 people , are homeless, and many are in danger of . starvation, having lost their all. The loss of life is reported to bo very great.