CONTINENTAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1211, 17 May 1895, Page 36

CONTINENTAL.

Constantinople, May 10. A Russian Note to the Porte requests that reforms shall be carried out in Armenia, and adds that France and Great Britain concur in this view. The Sultan is said to be astounded at the concerted action of the Powers named. Berlin, May 10. The attitude of the Reichstag renders it unlikely that the Anti-Revolutionary Bills will be passed. Berlin, May 12. In the Reichstag the Anti-Revolution Bill, which was virtually abandoned by Prince Hohenlohe as hopeless, was rejected. The Minister of War declared that the German army was a solid wall, and that it was useless for the Socialists who had opposed the measure to attempt to destroy it by merely picking at the foundations. There is much rejoicing in Germany at the rejection of the Bill. ' Paris, May 12. The French religious orders are intensely excited concerning the proposed taxation affecting themselves, and are disputiug it. The cardinal, priests, bishops and 150,000 monks are affected by it. Bishop Puget urges that the tax be paid under protest, as refusal means war against the State, and a casus belli between France and the Vatican. Paris, May 13. M. Ribot, the Premier, derides the agitation among the priesthood against the taxation as fictitious, and asserts that it will soon be abandoned. London, May 13. The Chronicle’s Roman correspondent says the Pope has retreated from his first position regarding the proposed taxation affecting religious orders in France, and is now advising the French, clergy to submit to the taxation.