Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1899. PIN-PRICKS CONTINUE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8408, 6 January 1899, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1899. PIN-PRICKS CONTINUE.

Tin; policy of pin-pricks continues. France, exasperated over the fuilurc of her filibustering attempt to snatch Fashoda, is endeavoring to cause annoyance to Great Britain in other directions. First she raises disputes of old standing about certain treaty rights in Newfoundland waters, and England promptly despatches a couple of ironclads across the Atlantic to assert by their presence the inviolability of British claims and interests. Then she raises a rumpus in Siam, which, though it concerns us very little, is doubtleas done with the object of irritating an already aggravated situation in the Far East ; and finally she wrests from China concessions of territory in the province of Shanghai — in Shanghai, which of all places is surely the sphere of British influence. Russia has joined in the game and has instructed her agents to facilitate the Frenchmen as much as possible in their attempt to badger the British. Like pieces in a game of chess, two powerful battleships arc being sent from England to reinforce our squadron in the East, and if the pin-pricking, which is now almost past endurance, continues any further, public opinion in the Old Country will give forth such a roar of resentment that England's tormentors will have no reason to doubt her preparedness to resist, "even at the cost of war," any! further irritation from her enemies.