HOME & FOREIGN.

Waikato Argus, Volume XVIII, Issue 2907, 20 June 1905, Page 2

HOME & FOREIGN.

THE BRITISH NAVY. London, June 18 The battleship Hibernia has been launched at Devonport, and the first-class cruiser Achilles Elswick. London, June 19 The Admiralty will mobilise a number of reserve battleships and cruisers, and experiment on the lines of the manoeuvres practised at the battle of Tsushima. The Admiralty are replacing the cruisers’ torpedo-nets and establishiug on the warships fire-control stations equipped with range-finders.

SELLING STATE SECRETS Rome, June 19

At the trial at Messina of Captain Ercolessi, who with his "wife was arrested in July last on a charge of selling to France plans of the mobilisation and fortifications of Sicily and Calubna, Ercolessi declared that he rejected scornfully the overtures of a foreigner named Viller, whereupon Viller was called to confront him. He testified that he masqueraded at the instance of the Government as o foreign secret service agent, and bribed Ercolessi, who gave information of the highest importance. Ercolessi and his wife almost collapsed at this confrontation.

SCANDINAVIAN CRISIS

Christiania, June 18

Bjorneterne Rjornson, the Norwegian novelist, dramatist and poet, states that unless King Oscar 11. agrees to the request of the Norwegian Storthing to nominate a prince as ruler of Norway, the latter will have to become a republic on the Swiss model, with an elected president.

A PRINCELY BEQUEST. Vienna, June 18.

Nathanial Rothschild, a member of the great Lank firm, has bequeathed £BBB,OOO to charities, the terms of the will providing that the money should be used especially for the relief of the sick and suffering of Vienna.

THE GERMAN ARMY. Berlin, June 19 ' PrinCe' Henckel Dounermarck, the Silesian coal magnate, has placed half a million sterling at the disposal of the Kaiser, the interest on which is to be paid to officers for special services to the German army, or for increasing their psy. FATAL COLLISION. New York, June 19 In a collision between a passenger and coal trains at Westminster, Maryland, 23 were killed, mostly railroad hands. A FAMOUS VIOLINIST. London, June 18 Kubelik, the Bohemian violinist, will open his Australasian tour at Melbourne on July 19, 1906,

WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER London, June J9

By an explosion in the Ivan colliery, at Khartsiek, Poland, 500 were killed.