Oddments.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7844, 23 May 1904, Page 6

Oddments.

The Japanese Lave 'demanded th'o use of all the Imperial farmsteads m Korea.They require these in order to produce the grain necessary for the sustenance of the army during the period- of hostilities. Twenty, thousand troops are being sent to protect the farms agjainst this depredations of the populace, The Imperial farms consist of one-third of the land of the country.—Chronicle's Seoul correspondent. h\ St. Petersburg', as well as" ill all the great Russian town, a rcvolu" tionary proclamation has been circu* lated recently, bearing the signature* "Committee of Self-help, and Liber* ating Reforms.'' The proclamation closes with the words: "Do not throw'away your money for so-call-ed patriotic purposes, as it will only vanish into the pockets of officials and thieves in uniform. Enlighten the soldiers, and tell them to take flight instead of being dragged to the East Asia Slaughterhouse."— Telegraph's Vienna correspondent. The Hamburg-American Company's steamer Pennsylvania, when it sailed from Hamburg for New Yprk, had over 2200 steerage . passengers on board. Among them were hundreds of Russian subjects, Poles, - and Finns, who are emigrating to war service. A number who had intended sailing on--the'Pennsylvania wore" prevented at. the last moment by the Russian authorities.

Mr Bcimot Burleitfi, writing- to the ■telegraph f rom Nagasaki, on February 15th/ said :-Last night the Japanese, who .. often try new methods in secret, essayed a novel experiment in .embarking and debarking troops. It was one which would be of great use in roueh' water, when men had to be transferred to or from a lighter to a. larger ,v essc i. Some thirty, soldiersi sat upon a. net, the ends were caught «P, and they were swung on-board "'«V so much ordinary freight ok . We learn that the Japanese navy is. equipped with a remarkable system of sound signalling, which has already been of immense use. This apparatus was. furnished to them by *'}' ~- "^' Kelway, a naval engineer, °t London. The system enables a s"P to move safely on its objective through darkness, dense fog, or blinding snow, and it has been used in approaching Port Arthur under all tlicse conditions.-.AnyUnseen object or vessel can be safely reached (or avoided) i n darkness by the use of tllc ■" locator," which measures sound and indicates to the listener -lie distance of any whistle, siren, beat of a screw, or roll of water on a beach, besides the direction in which tiic sound lies. The system is based on tho velocity of sound carrieS by tnc Hertzian waves.—Express, Despite the utmost vigilance--on the, Part of the military authorities at iort Arthur, the place is infested by spies, who are continually betrayino. information to the Japanese. During the last bombardment four "Chinese and two Japanese were caught m the act of signalling to the Japanese fleet. They were "hanged on the nill below the harbour fort. The Jtussian police are constantly en-gag-ed m pulling the pigtails of Chinese in Port Arthur to see if they are really Chinese.—Express' Chefoo correspondent. _ Private letters received from working men a t Batoum corroborate the report that "six of their brethrea were hanged f n February for participating m* a * anti-war demonstration. A hundred workmen, shoutino.Down with absolutism; down with war 1" paraded the streets of iSatoum, They were attacked by police and gendarmes, and eiHit were arresed. Of these, six w^ere hanged i n twenty-four hours.-Ex-press Odessa correspondent. Kussia is taking her troops as rapidly as possible from the nearest stations and they are marching on foot. Wh at i s described as a plan of genius is thus explained :-\ tram-load, of men turn out somewhere on the line and proceed to inarch forward, the train going on to its destination ,with their lugg-afee .Uie next troop train coming alonodrops its load of men and takes up tie previous marchers, carrying them with the baggage of the second lot of men to the lieadnuarters, and so on with the succeeding trains. b