CABLE NEWS. BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 592, 24 March 1908, Page 4

CABLE NEWS. BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

[bt eleotbio telegraph — coptbioht.J [FSB PBEBS ASSOCIATION.] PRESIDENT'S ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE. New York, March 22. President Roosevelt announces that he is about to send a meesag© to Congress urging the enactment of a programme prepared after consulting with the leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives. It includes a revision of the tariff by a special session of Congress after March, 1909, and urges Congress in 1908 to attend to the Sharman antitrust law to enable the railways to make a reasonable traffic agreement, subject to the consent of the Interstate .Commerce Commission ; also to t pass the Employers' Liability and 1 Financial Bills introduced by Senator Aldrich. THE WAKING UP OF RUSSIA. St. Petersburg, March 22. M. Kokostoff informed the Budget Committee of the Douma that new ! loans were inevitable, and emphasised the political indispensibility of ■ constructing, with five years, a second trans-Siberian line and Amur railway, totalling £36,000,000. Extraordinary expenditure upon national . defence in the next five years would total £32,000,000. He explained the I tendency of ordinary expenditure to ■ increase in the case of countries passing from absolute monarchy to na- ( tional representation, and foreshadowed an income tax. THE RAND MINES. London, March 22. The Rand mines will not be permitted to recruit further from the natives of British Central Africa. CHINA AND JAPAN. Canton. March 22*! In connection with the release of the Japanese steamer Tateu Maru, 50,000 Chinese made a demonstration at Canton, and burned their Japanese garments. They recommond a boycott of Japanese goods ; also the impeachment jof Yuanshiki. Many buildings are draped in mourning. • ' DAMNABLE INTERFERENCE. ' ' Durban, March 22. Mr Moore. Premier of Natal, speaking at Winton, complained of certain members of the House of Commons putting questions and otherwise seeking to discredit and dishonour Natal's constitution. Natal acted within its chartered rights in bearing tho White Man's Burden, which was not made lighter by "their damnable interference." He hoped that better counsels would prevail and Natal be given an opportunity' of proving the justice of her position. THE OPIUM TRAFFIC. Pekin, March 22. An announcement is made in Pekin that Great Britain had agreed to an j experimental decrease in the impor- ! tation of opium for a period of three I years, to see whether the cultivation I of the poppy and the number of opium ! smokers wjll be lessened and the imI portation in that case decreased an--1 nually. j A decree issued in Pokin orders , further measures to deal with the evil.