BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 24

BRITISH AND FORE IGN.

LONDON, February 11. An explosion in the chemical research lepartment attached to the Woolwich axsenal .shook the town. The concussion shattered the windows in 50 shops and in many dwellings. No fatalities are reported, though the building was within the danger zone at Plumstead ' Marshes. The shock was felt at a distance of 30 miles. The -damage is estimated at .£20,000. February 12. xhe King has conferred the Order oi Merit on Mr Bryce, the newly-appointed "British Ambassador at Washington. The British Meat, Poultry, and Fruit. Oarming Company, with a capital of £300,000, has obtained a concession from Servia for 38 years. The National Assembly is expected to approve, as the Government favours the objects of the company. The music-hall dispute has been referred to the arbitration of Mr G. R. Asquith. A pig from Murphy's Creek, Queensland, was condemned at Smithfield. It was .badly affected with pleurisy. The salesmen are indignant at the laxity of the officials in allowing the -animal to be exported. The Countess of Warwick .contributed £}Va to to-day's unemployed demonstration at Hyde PaTk on the occasion of the meeting of Parliament. She also sent what is termed a " remarkable " letter to Jack Williams, in which she says : " I returned my peeress's ticket for the opening ceremony of Parliament. When I heard of your march, how could I drive through the streets in satins and face the unemployed? " The Woolwich explosion was chiefly of cordite. It was heard 51 miles away, but 'south of the Thames it was heard only three miles, owing to the hills intervening. The explosion occurred early in the ■morning in the laboratory of the magazine, "when the workmen xrere absent. A gasiolder containing 330,000 ft of gas col.lapsed, the gas taking fire. February 13. The King has accepted from Mr Carruthers (Premier of New South Wales) a picture of Captain Cook's landing-place at Kurnell, Botany Bay. A memorial to the late General Sir Henry Wylie Norman has been unveiled at Chelsea- Hospital. The Royal Exchange Assurance Company'« losses by the San Francisco earthquake and fire amount to £613,396 net. They are met without trenching on the special reserve. Through a fire at a boarding-house at fibeinach, on Lake Constance, Mr Watson, »n Englishman, and his wife and five children were burned to death. The house of Mr Charles Wertheimer, .Park lane, was entered by bnrglars, and pictures and articles of vertu valued at .JEJSOjOOO stolen. The plunder included "Gainsborough's picture of Nancy Pansons and Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of ilia Charles Yorke, valued at £20,000. These had beea linsJuliaHy cut from their frames Trit'h a carving knife. February 14. The death of Lord Allendale, aged 7S, is announced. Thomas Parnnam, a labourer, who is dumb and feeble-minded, has been arrested at Nottingham. He confessed that he was re*ponsible for the recent attempts to wreck trains and for the burning of churches. Miss Kdna May, the well-known actress, is betrothed to Mr Che ar Lewishon, the Bon of the copper kin' 4. A man named Leith, a Xew ZeaUnder.

who was living apart from his wife, entered her mother's residence at Petersham Im* night, and after a quarrel with an old man named Medhurst drew a revolver and shot Medhurst dead. ' lie I then placed the revolver to his own temple and killed himself. February 15. What is supposed to be the earliest portrait of Shakespeare, painted on an old panel and valued at £dOOO, has been discovered at an inn at Whinston, Durham. Nineteen good pictures have been stolen from the Art Gallery at Pwllheli, in Wake. Slot machines for the sale of penny stamps and sixpenny packets of postcards , have been metalled in the portico of the , General Post Office. ! A tailor named Bayerl has been arrested ' od a charge of complicity in the murder of Miss Lake near E&sen in Octobpr last. February 16. ! Lord Tweedmouth (First Lord of the Admiralty) has informed a deputJr'ion from the Trades Union Congress that lie is unable to transfer certain classes of -work done in the dockyards from skilled labourers to mechanics. The death is announced of H.R.H. Marie Clementine, widow of the late Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and daughter of King Louis Philippe; aged 90 years. February 17. The West Australian loan closes on Wednesday. The first six months' interest will be payable on the Ist of Jane. Mr Lloyd--George (President of the Board of Trade), speaking at the Chamber of Shipping banquet, expressed the hope that uniform shipping legislation would be adopted throughout the Empire. Enormous smuggling of whisky by an unknown Irish firm has been discovered. The spirit was conveyed by means of underground pipes from the distillery to a duty-paid warehouse. The Revenue Department imposed a penalty of £65,000, and an agitation is afoot to secure the prosecution of the- firm. February 18The fire claims in connection with tlie Kingston earthquake against British iiisuiance companies total £1,500,000. PARIS, February 11. A workman named Solielland, of tliLs city, was allowed to take his neighbours child, Mart he Erbelding. aged 12 roars, to an entertainment, saying that Ins wife I■» as accompanying him. He outraged the j child and then strangled her, and left the j remains at the parcels office of a railway station. He subsequently confessed his 1 crime. February 13. The Prefect of Police has decided that ! women obtaining cab drivers' licenses must wear male attire, including a hard shiny topper, which is intended to protect the head in the event of a fall on the street. February 17. j The Income l\ix Bill is mo«t unpopular 1 throughout Fiance. It is considered inquisitorial and a 6tep in Socialistic legislation. BRUSSELS, February 14. The fumes from a cargo of matches on ' a steamer bound from Gothenburg to I Antwerp suffocated four passengers, including Tscherniak, the chief of a large I gang of Russian terrorists. BERLIN, February 11. Alfred Land, a clerk at lie en, has surrendered himself for the murder of Miss Lake, an Englishwoman, in a wood near Essen in October last. I February 16. I A Russian has been sentenced at Leipsic to three rears' imprisonment for espionage. CONSTANTINOPLE, February 18. After the British Ambassador had again •■tienuously supported the German Am-

bassador's demands for the punishment of Fehim Pasha, a Turkish official who had seiaed a cargo of timber belonging to a German which was carried in a British ship, he has been exiled to Mudania, a town in Turkey-in-Asia. ALGIERS, February 18. The town of Bona, in Algeria, is flooded and thousands of houses and municipal and other buildings inundated. Bread is scarce. A number of natives have been drowned, and the damage is estimated at a million francs (about £40,000). MOROCCO, February 14. Ben Mansour has been shot dead in revenge for forsaking the rebel Raisuli. PORT SAID, February 15. As the Turkish transport Ilodesdah was passing through the Suez Canal 300 men jumped overboard in the Bitter Lakes and escaped'inland, except 10, who were shot or drowned. ST. JOHN, February 14. 1 The Piemier (Sir R. Bond) in the Newfoundland Assembly fiercely assailed Lord Elgin's modus vivendi, and declared that it was a policy sacrificing colonial interests without the colony's consent. February 15. The Newfoundland Assembly, by 23 to 3, adopted an address to Lord Elgin (the Colonial Secretary) disapproving of the modus vivendi arranged between Great Britain and the United States regarding the fisheries. NEW YORK. February 12. A million pounds' worth of the State of New York's stock transfer stamps aie missing at Albany. The United States, Mexico, Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala have informed Honduras and Nicaragua that they must settle their differences by means of arbitration. February 14. President Roosevelt, in a Message to Congress, advocates the conservation of coal and other fuel lesources on Stateowned lands. He also advocates Government control of the West-crn public laud pastuiets. Honduras and Xnaragua have agieed to settle their difi'eiences by arbitiation. February 18. At a secret se«-ion of the United States Senate i* vas dfidod to Mippoit President Roosevelt's action in connection with tilt.- Congo atrotiUes. OTTAWA, Februaiy 13. The Hon. W. S. Fielding (Minister of Finance) proposes 120 fresh changes in the Canadian tariff, including several in the iron and steel schedules which will benefit British producers. CALCUTTA, Fcbinaiy 11. The Ameer of Afghanistan it to visit Bombay on the 17th. February 13. The Ameer of Afghanistan has arrived at Bombay. He states that his vifoit has greatly developed the friendship betw-een India and Afghanistan, winch will uever alter on bis side.