NOTES ON THE CABLES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11808, 10 August 1900, Page 5

NOTES ON THE CABLES.

By Majou Kennedy. Chu Chan fii is located in the province of Chekiang, to the north-west of Wenehow, one of the treaty ports of the province. The death of the Rev. Mr Thompson and anyone connected with missions in that part of China might have been expected, .is the "Viceroy of the province has from the first espoused the Boxer cause and has token n very prominent part in the nnti-ftireign crusade. Khabarovski v a Russian, garrison town, tho headquarters of tho military district of tho eastern part of the Amur Valley. The town k situated on the Amur River, at its junction with the Usuri River, opposite to the extreme

north-eastern corner of Manchuria. The civilian population is about 7000. Very large military forces are always stationed there, as the position is considered to be one of great strategic importance. The town is connected by railway with Vladivostock, 400 mile due south. The Amur River is navigable for over 1200 miles of its course to the west of Khabarovsk, or as far aa Streten.sk, on the Shilka Kiver, the northern branch of the stream, and even to a greater distance on the Kerulen River, which forms the southern branch of the Amur. The Shilka lliver is navigable for about 200 miles west of Stretensk, or as far as Chita, in the Baikal district of Siberia for about three months of each year. The Kerulen rises about 1-0 miies south of the Russian, frontier about 150 miles southeast of Kiakhta, Die most southern town on the .Russian side of the frontier of the GreNorthern trade route, by which Chinese 1 The Kerulen River flows south through M< golia to Russia, Afghanistan, and Per.. The Kerulen River flows couth through .Ml golia for a distance of 150 miles, and then turns to the north-east until it flows into Dalainor, a lake about 50 miles wide from east to west, and about 80 miles in length from north to south. From the lake to the north the stream is known as tho Argun River until it reaches a junction with the Shilka, at the extreme north-west of the province of Manchuria. To the east of the junction of the Argun and Shilka, the river becomes tho Amur, and gives its namo to a province of Eastern Siberia, that in extent and natural resources is an empire in itself. The country through which the Kerulen, Shilka, and Argun Rivers flow will become the future grain producing centres from which Western Europe will draw its supplies, when America will be unable to supply the demand owing to the amount required for local consumption in that country. Irrigation works will have to be constructed on a very extensive scale, and in such undertakings Russian engineers will have room to exercise their ability, and Russian capital will find profitable investment if the demands of the military party within the Russian Empire are not too heavy a burden for the profitable investment of the millions which it will be necessary to expend to make the country what it ought to be. Unfortunately, the grasping policy of the military party at St. Petersburg is so pronounced that Russia is practically unable to carry out any of the schemes of internal improvement which are a necessity within her territory.

A despatch, dated St. Petersburg Bth inst., tells of the increase of customs duties! owing to the Imperial Treasury being unable to raise a loan to meet the expenses of the Empire. These expenses will be largely increased by the mobilisation of the Russian army on . a war footing, which is now in progress in nearly all of the military districts into which the Empire is divided. The cost of the operations in China and the massing of large bodies of troops along; the Trans-Siberian railways from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific, in readiness for any emergency that may be brought about by reason of the demands that are sure to be made by the Russian military chiefs for. territorial aggrandisement in China as a prelude to a-settlement, will still further increase the financial burdens of theCzar's Government, and this m turn will keep back the many improvements which are waiting for capitalists to begin and which will make of Asiatic Russia one of . the greatest and most productive countries of the world. The financial difficulties of Russia and the incomplete state of the Trans-Siberian railway give Great Britain and Japan a considerable advantage over Russia if a struggle should ensue between these Powers over the partition of China, anil there can be no doubt about the desire of Russia to obtain cash, either by floating a loan or by increased taxation, to complete the Siberian railways -before hostilities begin. There can be no possible ending of the crisis in China until war between the Powers has for ever settled the question of the division of China between the Powers or the maintenance of that country as an independent State. The object of Russia in entering into an alliance with France was to secure an ally capable of assisting her in the Far East ■ when the proper moment arrived; and on the other hand, Franca sought Russia as an ally because such an alliance threatened Germany on the one hand, and as a possible means of inflicting a defeat on Great Britain for the latter's failure to evacuate Egypt. The position of affairs about Tientsin does not give much encouragement to the Allies, as the information received states that the Russians and Japanese are not working in harmony, and in the meantime t-ho ambassadors are.placed in a terrible position, with little chance of escape. The reports coming to band, however, may be regarded with a good deal of suspicion, as the news, cabled comes from sources too far removed from the scenes of the events reported to be regarded as altogether trustworthy.

' NOTES BY THE^REV. A. DON. Major-Kennedy .never wrote truer words than these: "To the average European, the Chinaman is little known, and less understood, and is consequently despised." The glib way in which the average, and even the well-edu-cated, European talks of the partition of China is on* proof. I think a Catholic bishop the other clay said it would be a " colossal undertaking." "Colossal" is just the word. The Powers, even after agreeing to their respective shares, would require to furnish about .4,000,000 or 5,000,000 police and spend a few hundred millions on railways and roads. July's " Review of Reviews" furnishes another proof of European ignorance of the Chinese. On page 38, in execrable taste, the writer says that "An almond-eyed,, yellowskinned, and pig-tailed Napoleon is unthinkable." If a Chinese should write that "A red-haired, demon-eyed, parrot-nosed, inde-cently-trousered Confucius is unthinkable" one could excuse him; but this is hardly a style becoming the leading article in a respectable English journal. And this "is not all. A few lines lower we read: " China will supply the brute power, Japan the brains." One can pretty safely say that there are millions of -Chinese with more brains than the man who wrote thus. Ignorance is no plea here; for even an ignorant man with brains will stay his pen from sacrificing truth for an alliterate epigram. There are also inaccuracies in. the same article. On page 30 the central figure in the illustration is called "Prince Tuan: Responsible for the Massacre of the Europeans." There is no excuse for such a mistake; for " Intimate China," from which the plate is acknowledged to have been taken, gives correctly: ''Prince Ch'un: the Emperor's Father." Prince Ch'un is dead some time. The misuse of the word " martyr," applied to foreign missionaries who are murdered in China, is also noticeable. The Chinese Christians who are being killed die for their faith— true martyrs: the foreign missionary is killed, not because he is a Christian, for Chinese are perhaps the most tolerant of peoples, but bocause lie is a foreigner.

The missionary who was bayoneted at Chuchowfu is most likely Sir D. B. Thompson, of the C.I.M. station K'u-chau or Ch'u-chau, a mountain station on the Upper Tsien-tang River, about 200 miles from Hang-ohau at its mouth. There is another Ch'u-chaxi, some 70 miles from Mrs Stott's station Wen-chau; but as we have had word that the missionaries here had got away safely, I think that the former one is meant. There is doubt whether the "four women and four children" beheaded were foreigners or Chinese. It is likely they were foreigners; for the usual massacre of Chinese Christians would follow the murder of the missionary, and as there are between 4-0 and 50 converts at the station, it is unlikely that eight would be mentioned. Besides, at Mr Thompson's station there were just four foreign women—viz., Mrs Thompson, Miss Sherwood, Miss Manchester, and Miss Desmond; while thov were also just four children of the Thompson family—three boys and a girl, from 15 years to 2 years of age.

It will be good news to many in Otago and Canterbury to hear that Mr John Wilkinson yesterday received a cablegram from Melbourne : —" Three Reids safe Shanghai. Webster returning Australia." These are the sisters, Hannah and Lilias Reid, of Akaroa, Miss Maggie Reid, of Dunedin, and Miss Bessie Webster, of Ou?h

NEWS OF MISSIONARIES.

Mr John Wilkinson, lion, secretary of the China Inland Mission, supplies us with the following:—-"I have received a cable from the Melbourne secretary China Inland Mission, which runs as follows:—'Three Reids safe Shanghai; Webster returning Australia.' This refers to Misses Hannah ana Lily Reid, of Akaroa, Canterbury, who were stationed at Chicheo, in Ganhwuy province ; Miss M. A. Reid, of Dunedin, who was stationed at Antong, in Kiangsu; and Miss Bessie Webster, of Gust, Canterbury, who was stationed at Kienpiug, also in Ganhwuy. All four missionaries are safe, and one is coming home. It is extremely probable that other co-workers at the stations named are also safe in Shanghai. Among these would be Mr and Mrs George Nicol, who were at the same station as tlis Misses H. and L. Reid." .

• — There is a clock in Brussels which has never been wound up by human hands. It is kept going by the wind.

WHY SUFFER ONE MOMENT from torturing, disfiguring skin, scalp, and blood humours, with loss of hair, when a, warm bath with CUTICUIIA SOAP, to cleanse the skin of crusts and scales and soften tho thickened cuticle, and a single anointing with CUTICUKA. Ointment, the great skin cure, to allay itching and inflammation and soothe and heal, followed by a full dose of CUTICURA

RESOLVENT, to cool and cleanse the blood, will afford instant relief, permit reat and sleep, and point to speedy, permanent, and economical cure, when the best physicians and all other remedies fail. PRICE, the SET, Gs; or, SOAP, Is; OINTMENT, 2s Gel; RESOLVENT, 2a 6d ; all chemist" ■£