PALACE AT SEOUL BURNED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12550, 18 April 1904, Page 5

PALACE AT SEOUL BURNED.

EMPEROR HAS A NARROW

ESCAPE.

London, April 15.

The palace at Seoul, the capital of Corea, has been destroyed by fire. The Emperor had a narrow escape. It is supposed to be the work of Corean opponents to Japanese influence.

(Eeceired April 17, 9.22 a.m.)

London, April 16.

A) message from Seoul attributes the fire in the palace to overheated stoves. The palace is in ruins, and all the Royal treasures and jewels have been lost. - !

RUSSIAN WAR FUNDS.

TSAR'S ECONOMIES.

London, April 15.

The Tsar has made economies in the Royal household expenditure to the extent of a million roubles, and the money so saved has been handed to the War Treasury.

BRITISH SYMPATHY.

(Received April 17, 9.10 a.m.)

London, April 16.

The Novo© Vr'emya declares that Russia fully believes and appreciates the sincerity of the British newspapers in their utterances of sympathy and condolence.

WARNING TO WAR CORRESPONDENTS.

(Received April 17, 9.10 a.m.)

London, April 16. Advices received at Washington state that Russia has notified that newspaper correspondents using wireless telegraphy will be treated as spies and shot.

DEATH OF A GREAT PAINTER.

London, April 15.

It is reported that the famous Russian painter, Vasili Vereshchagin, was drowned in the PetropavloVsk.

(Received April 17, 9.32 a.m.)

London, April 16. The death of Vereshchagin is confirmed.

Vereslichagin was born in 184-2, and studied in St. Petersburg and Paris. He travelled through Turkestan, China and India served in the Caucasus and the Russo-Turkish war; was present at the storming of Plevna; acted as secretary in the negotiations for peace; and went to India in 1882 and 1884-. Among his pictures arc a cycle of twenty from the history of India; a cycle of 20 from the campaign in Turkestan; 20 from the RussoTurkish war, and a. number of sacred pictures.

BATTLESHIP ACCIDENTALLY

RAMMED.

London, April 15.

The Russian battleship Sevastopol, while manoeuvring recently, rammed the battleship Poltava.

SEARCHING FOR CONTRABAND.

Among the vessels stopped by the Russian cruiser Dmitri Donskoi near Port Said was the German liner Stuttgart, which arrived at Port Adelaide from Bremen a few days ago. On March 13 the cruiser was noticed making signals, but the distance was too great to allow of thoir being read, and tho captain did not take any notice. Tho vessel was brought to by a shot, and on the cruiser approaching it was noticed she had the signal flying, "Stop your ship this moment." The cruiser asked the vessel's destination, and what cargo she carried, and on receiving a favourable reply steamed off.

WAR ITEMS. In a diocesan letter the Bishop of Bristol deprecates manifestations of open delight at Russian reverses.

Mine. Stark, wife- of the admiral commanding at Port Arthur at the time of the first Japanese torpedo attack, denies that she gave a hall to the Russian officers on that night, and declares that everyone was at his post, including Admiral Stark. General Kuropatkin is an excellent revolver shot. At a shooting gallery in Sebastopol he fired 10 shots at a target the size of a playing card, at 15 paces, scoring seven bull's-eyes. He- then fired 10 shots at the same target at 20 paces from a small rifle, hilling the bull's-eye each time. The fund which is being raised in London for the relief of the widows and families of the Japanese soldiers and sailors reached £7600 on March 7.

Revolutionary proclamations are being circulated in Moscow and St. Petersburg declaring that the Russian Government should have agreed to the just claims ol.' Japan instead of dragging the nation into a destructive and costly war. In a telegram to Prince Ferdinand, says the Sofia correspondent of the Figaro, the Tsar expresses his thanks for Bulgaria's sympathy at the moment when " Russia has been provoked by the enemy to draw the sword in defence of her rights." The German press publishes an interview with M. do Plehve, Russian Minister for the Interior, in which he is reported to have expressed great satisfaction at the. attitude of the German Government, Russia being delighted, he said, to find that Germany sympathised with her. The missionaries at Pingvnug, who number 18 men and 22 ladies, with 25 children, are strongly averse to leaving (says the Daily Mail correspondent). They believe that they can escape later should the situation become more acute. The native Christians at Puigyang, who number 1000, are displaying singular courage. They are practically the only Coreans who are continuing business there. ;

Numbers of old " Kobzars," the national bards of Russia, who chant the stirring popular songs to the accompaniment of a kind of harp, are proceeding to the Far East, says the Novosti, to encouraso the young soldiers to fight. On learning thai the Russian Consul at Barcelona had contracted for the supply 'if Catalan oxen to Russia during the war, the Mayor of that town requested the Spanish Government to annul the transaction on the ground that it may tend to raise the price of meat locally. Advices received at Marseilles from the Far East state that the Empress of China has all the telegrams from London translated for her, so that she may be kept informed of the situation.

Several Jewish lady pupils at the Conservatoire of Music at St. Petersburg have been excluded from the institute lor the anti-Russian feeling which they displayed in opening a subscription on behalf of the sick and wounded in the Japanese army. "We calculated without that mysterious force which urcred the Japanese on their warlike course, rousing them to white heat, and has made them act almost unconsciously. Could Japan unaided have so soon perfected her weapons of war?"*—Prince Galitzin, Chief Equerry of the Tsar. Though straining every nei'Vc to reinforce hot position lie the Far East, P»u«9ia does not intend to be taken unawares round the Black Sea littoral. Every battleshio, cruiser, transport, gunboat, and torpedo-boat in the Black Sea fleet has been thoroughly overhauled at Sebastopool during the last three months. Work on the new ships i.i being pushed forward with unusual haste. The coal for the Japanese fleet comes chiefly from the island of Hokkaido or Yeiso, tc the north of the island of Nippon, the largest in the Empire. Th« two parts supplying it are Mororan on the south coast and Otaru on the west coast. At present one company, the Hokkaido Tunko Tetsudo Kaisha, a wealthy corporation, owning mines, railways, and wharves, provide' the fuel of the Imperial navy, which is bituniiiiou; and of high grade