BRITISH AND FOREIGN. LONDON, September 27

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 26

BRITISH AND FOREIGN. LONDON, September 27

The Daily Telegraph's St. Petersburg lorxespondent says that M. Kokovstov {Minister of Finance) is considering a British- capitalists' syndicate's offer of £25,000,000 for the right to work for a term of yeare the northern railways, and also tha minerals and forests of Northern Russia. September 28. Lord Morley (Secretary for India), in reply to a question in the House of Lords, intimated that the Government proposed to give an anr.ual grant of £300 ( ? £3000) towards the estimated yearly cost (£12,725) for an Oriental School of Languages in London. It is reported from Manila, that a gang of pirates captured the revenue cutter Sora off Borneo, and murdered the captain __ and the crew of thirteen men. A gunboat has been despatched to the scene. September 29. A man -was sentenced at Folkestone to three years' penal servitude and to detention for a further neriod of five years as an habitual criminal, onT.a charge of stealing^ ' This is the first c?ee under the Prevention of Crimes Act. Colonel Davies, of New Zealand, who has attended all the recent British army (manoeuvres, will from now on till June next be attached to he various general staffs, and also to the War Office, and will attend the cavalry; and mounted infantry jnusketry schools. ' The Times' New York correspondent iadvises that H.M. Customs, suspecting smuggling, stripped the wife and five children of Mr Azecz Khayat, a wealthy American, to the skin, but found nothing. Mr Khayat is suing for damages. The Pester Lloyd, a Vienna paper, states that it is common information that the Ministers of the Monarchy, at the last conference, deckled to postpone their demand for extraordinary credits for the 'Austrian army and navy, and to delay the construction of the projected Dreadnoughts. A number of masked men waylaid the Her. John Lax (vicar of Stainmore, Westmorland) and his schoolmistress. The vicar was bound; gagged, and tarred, and then his assaulters' read a^mock service. Subsequently eight young parishioners ■were arrested and fined £5. The crossexamination showed that the vicar was a married man, and suggested certain relations with the schoolmistress. September 30. A fresh and more vigorous proclamation against the anti-British boycott has been posted throughout the Yang-tse Valley. Sir John Knill has been elected Lord Mayor of London after giving satisfactory assurances in reply- to questions not to toast the Pope before the King on ceremonial occasions, and that -no denominational considerations will affect the Mansion House charities during his year of office. He also promised to attend St. Paul's and other churches, according to ancient custom, when the Sovereign is present October 1. Mr Joseph Chamberlain maintains the improvement which was lately noticeable in his health. He has visited Mr 1 Jesse Collings, who is still an invalid. The returns show that the revenue for the past quarter was £29,721,194. towards which Customs contributed £6,846,000. Excise £7,352.000, and stamps £2,000,000. The Law Society has resolved in favour of placing the right of divorce within the reach of the poorer classes, in order to modify the hardships that follow where husbands and wives are permanently separated. * ~ " v -October 2. The central body on unemployment in London has resolved to cajl Mr Asquith's attention to the fact that the Unemployed Act is quite inadequate to enable it to deal properly with the constantlvrecurring distress. It states that unemployment must be supplemented by naitional action, such as the framing of arrangements for migration, immigration, training instructions, and labour colonies. October 3. The selling price of Northumberland coa' shows an advance for the fiist time .-mc.--1907? The Conciliation Board ha^ advanced the miner?' wages 11-i per cent v The profits of the North German a Lloyd Steamship Company for the first j " half of the present year were due to | increased receipts from its North American j r traffic. The current half-year shows r equally good development. The Hamburg- j t; American line has also done well, the I " profit for 1909 being estimated at 405 (?) j s ' per cent. I J 1 Captain Bernir. on the Government I i steamer Arctic-, is taking formal possession \[ of Banks Land and other Arctic lands for ' c< Canada a] Owing fo the competition of tire taxicab h< the voluntary introduction of a minimum m fare of 6d a mile in the case of hort-e- d< drawn cabs in London promises to prove Sl a success. I d< The official anooncement that Lord | JllJ 11 Morley has sanctioned tbe application of j ni thelmperial General Staff scheme (o the O1 Imfian army is .hailed with much ap- ? proval at Simla. Lord Kitchener ha« been „ a consistently warm tuppoiter of the vi scheme. j o The number of Alpine accidents in Swit- ti ( ctr^tnd this year exceeds that of pre- h<

vious years. There have been 150 killed, and many injured. The majority of the victims were Swiss. October 4. King Edward will open the Royal Edward Tuberculosis Institute in Belmont j Park, MontreaJ. He will press a button in Buckingham Palace, and electrical com- ' lnunicatkm will throw open the doors, turn on the lights, and hoist a flag at the ,' institute. j Lieutenant-general Baden-Powell has J been created a Knight Command&r of the ' Victorian Order in recognition of his success in organising the Boy Scouts. PARIS, October 1. A sensational suicide took place here, j A girl, after quaiTelling with her sweet- j heart, a lion tamer at the Theatre Moncey, infuriated the lions with a whip, then thrust the upper part of her body through j the bars of their cage. i STOCKHOLM, September 29. ' The Swedish Government's negotiations between the Employers' Association and the trades unions have failed. Sixty thousand mill hands are now idle, and the , failure will entail much suffering. BUDA-PESTH, September 28. - The Hungarian Cabinet has resigned owing to -tKo Xz2<X&pe*i-clex&'& party's olaj-ee-j tion to Austria's postponing consideration of a proposed national bank for Hungary. The Emperor Francis Joseph has sum- \ moned M. Kossuth to form a Ministry. CONSTANTINOPLE, October 3. Turkish troops are pouring into Arabia, where the Mabdi has gathered 40,000 followers. NEW YORK, September 28. Six hundred (? 6000) women in Cincinnati have petitioned Mr Taft to enact a law to punish wife deserters in a similar manner to deserters from the army. The petition states that 2700 Cincinnati wives had been deserted in three months. October 1. The sailors of the United States round-the-world fleet subscribed a gold loving cup for presentation to the Japanese navy in token of the appreciation of courtesies shown them during their visit to Japan October 2. Ex-President Roosevelt received an

! enthusiastic popular welcome. He is parj ticipating in the Hudson-Fulton celebrations. OTTAWA, October 1. The first annual convention of the Canadian Federation of Labour, at Ottawa, adopted the General Executive's report in favour of voluntary service in accordance with Canada's militia system and against a regular army. The convention also approved of tbe naval policy, and of Canada acting in harmony with the other portions of the Empire, but preserving complete autonomy in the matter of control. It was further more decided that all warships or military equipment must as far as possible be built in Canada. The Canadian Pacific railway has sold nearly one million acres of irrigated land east and south of Calgary io an American syndicate, which offers to purchase two million acres more when the canals and ditches are completed. MEXICO, September 30. Unprecedented cold has seriously damaged the corn crop in Mexico, and the loss is estimated at 20,000,000 dollars. CAPETOWN, September 28. The Court of Inquiry here found that tli>s- s.s_ TTm-lJali -was lo^t tHrougH gross negligence, a.nd suspended the captain's and the chief officer's certificates for a year, and reprimanded the third officer. CALCUTTA, September 29. The Clan Mackintosh, which was reported to have blown up at sea, has arrived here safely. RANGOON, September 29. London advices state that the Madras Steam Navigation Company's steamer Clan M'lntosh was blown up .it sea while voyaging to Calcutta for the purpose of fitting new boilers. There was only one survivor. , «