BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 25

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

™ LONDON, March 21. Th© German Crown Prince is to be Sfiarried in Berlin on June 6.

A mobile French column 1800 strong is encamped 100 kilometres within Moroccan territory. The nearest Algerian port is 3£laricha.

March 22. The Daily Mail states that the police force in India is being reorganised at a post of 1,000,000 sterling per annum to enable it to hold the country in an emergency and release the troops for service at the front.

The late Marquis of Anglesey's coffin vr&s opened on its arrival in London to enable the insurance, companies to identify the body.

The Queen and Princess Victoria have arrived) at Lisbon.

<Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman and Mr 2Vs<juith informed the United Temperance Alliance that it was urgently necessary that the Liberals should restore and extend the powers of the local licensing authorities, and introduce a time limit.

- -' March 23. Merchants complain that the San Francisco mail was again five days late.

March 24.

The Lancet attributes King Edward's Tecent indisposition to a chill caught whilst motoring.

The Unionist newspapers consider that Mr Chamberlain's letter with reference to opposing Lord Hugh Cecil does not interfere with the Greenwich Unionists' full . discretion.

The Times declares it will be unfortunate if a way is not found to avoid a three- - cornered contest.

The Daily Chronicle says that many Liberals and Conservatives feel that the letter is the beginning of the end of the Balfour-Chaniberlain compact, and that it brings dissolution perceptibly nearer. No mails by any route will be despatched next week for Australia.

March 25.

Mr Alfred Beit has increased his donation of £5000 to the Institute of Medical Science Fund in connection with the University of London to £25,000.

Mr Taverner (the Victorian Agentgeneral) informed Mr Arnold-Forster that the tender of Peacock's Factory, Melbourne, for the supply of jam to the troops in South Africa was completed in^May, lyUkS. in the following January th^VVar Office accepted Mr Peacock's explanation that the tender was in accordance with the usual Victorian custom and that the allegedi shortage was due to the inclusion of the weight of the tin. Mr Taverner also states that the Government inspected only for quality, not quantity. Only two Australian firms tendered for net weights.

March 26.

The Allan liner Parisian, with 1000 passengers aboard, collided with the Ham-burg-American liner Albano, with 800 passengers aboard, off Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both vessels made for port. The Albano's bows are crushed, and the Parisian is down by the stern. There were no casualties.

The House of Lends, in deciding in favour of the retail tobacco dealers, held that Ogdens (Limited) were liable for the., distribution of the promised bonus of J5200,000 per annum for four years.

. The proposed scheme for raising the Assouan dam has been suspended, owing to the British professors of applied mathematics and mechanics declaring that the ■wall would be unable to sustain a further strain.

March 27.

The Times congratulated Lord) Stanley and the Commonwealth on the reduction of Australian postag-e, which it characterised as another solid step towards unifying the Empire. A large debt of public gratitude is due to Mr Henniker Heaton. The reduction is. doubtless partly due to Mr Austen Chamberlain's enlightened enthusiasm for the consolidation of the Empire.

Although well disposed to the British mission, the Ameer of Afghanistan desires to postpone certain decisions because he resents interference in certain matters^

PARIS, March 22.

M. Tallandier, the French Minister at Tangier, reports that the explanation of the French proposals completely reassured the Sultan of Morocco.

March 25.

The Minister of Marine has courteously instructed the navy not to use ethergraphs lest they should interfere with ethergrams the Kaiser might wish to sends passing Ushant en route for flVlorocco.

AMSTERDAM, March 22.

The Netherlands Government has decided to employ coercion towards Venezuela unless five imprisoned Dutchmen are released.

BERLIN, March 22.

Despite the Minister of War's contention tnat there had been a marked diminution in the number of cases of brutal all-treatment, which he described 1 as " that Inost repulsive cancer of the German .army," the Reichstag, by a large majority, adopted the Opposition resolutions to rectify tlie disproportion between the penalties imposed on subordinates and the penalties on superiors for their respective anutual offences ; also asking for a better guarantee of the publicity of military trials and a bill recognising in all cases any mitigating circumstances involving a lower minimum penalty

March 23.

The National Zeitung reports that the natives of the whole of the Southern German Cameroons have risen in revolt.

At a banquet given in Bremen in con- j neetion with the unveiling of a monument ' to the Emperor Frederick, the Kaiser made a remarkable speech. He declared that h» was resolved, as far as be personally wa concerned, that all bayonets and guns should remain idle, but they would always be sharp and in fit condition to prevent outsiders disturbing Germany. Personally he did not aspire to be the barren sovereign of a world by conquest. The only world sovereignty the Hohenzollerns desired was that founded on the mutual confidence of the nations that were striving for the same goals. He declared that every new German battleship was another pledge of peace. He described the Germans as the salt of the earth.

VIENxVA, March 23.

The Emperor TTra^Sis Joseph is -willing to allow the Government representing the Hungarian coalition majority a free hand in all internal reforms, but he insists on the acceptance of the Austro-German commercial treaty, and declines any military concessions to Hungary beyond those granted in 1903.

Th© majority refuses these conditions, j and the deadlock continues. I

ST. PETERSBURG, March 22. Russia has established a consulate at Bandar Abbas.

Bandar Abbas is a seaport on the Persian Gulf, on the most northerly point of the Straits of Ormuz, and about 10 miles north of Ormuz. It is the starting point of 4he caravan route to Kerman and Yezd.

SOFIA, March 21

Anxiety prevails in Sofia owing to the Turks and Greeks combining against the -Bulgarians and Macedonians.

March 22.

•CONSTANTINOPLE,

A Bulgarian band surprised 18 Turkish soldiers near Demikapu, killing half and wounding th© rest.

NEW YORK, March 25.

The United States refused to allow Ay* tralasian butter to .enter the country on the ground that it contains boracic acid. The last month's shipments were reshipped to Liverpool.

ST. JOHN'S, March. 24. Newfoundland Government has

ordered the Customs Collectors to refuse, bait licenses to American and foreign vessels.

CAPETOWN, March 23

The Legislative Council, by 13 to 11, rejected Mr Logan's proposal to tax the export of diamonds.

PRETORIA, March 24. Lord Milner, at a farewell banquet given him in Pretoria, reviewed the colony's immense progress, and appealed to all to take a loyal part in serving the State now and in the time to come under a larger local self-government.

The Boer leaders were not present at the gathering.

CALCUTTA, March 22.

The Indian budget shows a surplus from last financial year of £2,996,000. The estimated surplus for the current year is £3,485,000, and the estimated surplus next year £904,000.