AMERICAN NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11889, 12 May 1899, Page 5

AMERICAN NEWS.

(Per San Francisco Mail.) • SAN FRANCISCO, April 19. , Two United States cruisers and two battleships are to go to Southampton for the British naval reception and review in May. Rear-Admiral Sampson will probably go over with four of the vessels which took a prominent part in the battle at Santiago. There will be the cruisers New York and Brooklyn and the battleships Indiana and Massachusetts, of tlue North Atlantic squadron. The command of Adinirtl Sampson will be at Cartagena soon after April 24. .The fleet was given an enthusiastic reception at Caracas, and dl the commanding officers were decorated by the Government. It is fashionable just now to send messenger boys from London with the idea of beating the time made by the mail service in carrying messages. Mr Richard Harding Davis, iii Londoii, set the fashion wiltin' he sent an engagement ring by -a ihessehgbr to Miss Clark in Chicago. Ldter, a bright lad froin London made a trip from London to Hanford, California, in fourteen days, beating the mails by some hours. The management of the Southern) Pacific Railway, the actions of which corporation may be taken as a sure gauge of business and crop conditions in the west, some time ago gave an order to. eastern firms for the' cdhstraction of 3000 hew cars and thirty-six locomotives. The railroad ’ shops Mil be busier than for many years past, and the present conditions indicate that it will be a, long time before there is a falling-of! in railway traffic. Canadian officials and the American owners of timber lands in Canadian territory are in controversy. The Parliament of Ontario passed an Act prohibiting all exportation of logs. The American timber-owners have memorialised the Joint High Commissioners, but that body having taken ho action, the Secretary of the Treasury has' been asked to impose a retaliatory clause in the Dingley Act. Secretary, Gage Mil apply such a clause in default of an assurance ff6hxthe Canadian/ Government that the Provincial Act referred to shall not be construed to prevent the exportation of logs purchased and paid for by Americans previous to the passing of the Act. The gigantic Sugar Trust is- at present engaged in efforts to stamp out opposition in the west. The price of sugar on the coast has always been froth d cent to a cent and a half per pound more than in the Eastern States. At present two dealers are supplying to the local trade Hongkong sugar ht a price winch, if continued for a year, Would gife to the consumers three to four million dollars. The trust is sinking money rapidly in an effort to drive out the anti-trust dealfera, and has plenty of money to continue the fight for an indefinite period. The latest move is tp tefuse to Sell to dealers who purchase Hoiigkong sugar,- which cornea in a granulated form only, the Cuba and other sugars which they must have to supply. . The amount at stake is important, and it remains to be seen what the. result of the attempted boycott Mil be. ■ At Washington the opinion does hot prevail that the forthcoming Peace Conference at The Hague MU have a definite result. Prominent diplomats have expressed the opinion that the time for the Conference is most inopportune, as the prospects are more for a war than for universal peace. It appears that when the crisis comes Russia intends to be able to hold her own at- least.' It is further said that Russia cannot afford to disarm, even with the prospect of the disarmament of other nations, so long as her people are held in a condition of abject slavery.