EUROPE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 24, 10 June 1908, Page 8

EUROPE.

The Powers have warned the Porte that the autonomy of Samos must be maintained.

A Greek band has massacred fifteen out of forty Bulgarians who were working in the fields outside Salonika.

At the elections for the Lower House of the Prussian Diet the Socialists secured three seats at Berlin and one at Hanover. The Paris Prefect of Police has de-

cided that in future no more licenses to play barrel organs in that city will be granted.

The Russian Press asserts that Russia, France, Italy, Germany, and Austria support Sir Edward Grey’s proposals for the reform of Macedonia.

A waiter named Schiwara has been sentenced to 12 years’ penal servitude at Leipzig, for procuring papers and drawings concerning the safety of the State, and revealing them to the French Government.

Hie Domna, by 194 votes to 78, rejected the credit of eleven million roubles for the construction of battleships, after reprimanding the Minister for Marine for irregularities in the Construction Department.

Three men and a woman, who have been recognised as artists’ models, robbed a Parisian villa at midnight on May 30, after strangling the owner, M. Adolphe Steenhert, a well-known portrait painter, and his mother-in-law, and gagging his wife. European Alliances. It is reported in Rome that the Kaiser has initiated an exchange of notes between the Chancellories of Berlin, Vienna, and Rome, with a view to preparing a joint manifestation of solidarity in regard to the Triple Alliance as a reply to the meeting of King Edward and President Fallieres in London, and the Czar’s meeting with King Edward at Revah Arrest of an Anarchist. A man named Alemany, described as a militant Spanish anarchist, has been arrested at Lisbon and conveyed to Spain. He confesses that he manufactured the bomb which the anarchist Morrell threw when he made an attempt on the lives of the King and Queen of Spain in Madrid on their wedding day, May 31, 1906, when 23 of the crowd were killed and 99 injured. Morrell, on being challenged three days later, shot a policeman dead and then committed suicide. The Situation in Samos. The Turkish cruiser Hamidieh, meeting with a hostile reception at Vathi, fired two rounds of blank ammunition, which stopped the firing from the island. Tranquillity now prevails. A semi-official report at Athens states that Turkish soldiers repeatedly fired at the Consulates, and those defending the Governor’s palace fired at passers-by indiscriminately. Attempt to Assassinate Dreyfus. In connection with the transfer of Emile Zola's remains to the Pantheon, just at the close of the ceremony, when President Fallieres and M. Clemenceau, Premier, were shaking hands with Madame Zola, a man fired two shots with a revolver, wounding Dreyfus, who was present, in the wrist.’ The assailant was arrested. The assailant of Dreyfus was M. Gregori, military writer for the Parisian newspaper “Gaulois.” Dreyfus’ brother Matthew seized Gregori, but chivalrously stood between him and the furious crowd who attempted to lynch Gregori.

Political demonstrations later greatly disturbed the Latin quarter in Paris, 200 arrests being made. M. Doumergue (French Minister for Commerce), during the ceremony at the Pantheon, paid a tribute to Zola’s manly stand for justice and truth. A Disastrous Fire. The explosion of a boiler in a factory in Vienna ignited a quantity of accumulated celluloid dust. This set fire to the building, which was crowded with workers at the time. The flames spread with such rapidity that it was impossible for all the employees to get out of the building. In an incredibly short space of time the factory was in ashes, and when an examination was made of the ruins seventeen bodies were recovered. Dockyard Frauds in Germany. Tlie police at Kiel, the principal German naval base, are investigating extraordinary frauds on the Imperial dockyards. High officials are suspected of passing out an immense quantity of stores, nominally for the use of the navy, but i eally for the purpose of selling them at nominal rates, the officials pocketing the amounts received. It is declared that sometimes two thousand pounds’ worth a day was sold. The police recovered £75,000 from one of the wealthiest merchants in Kiel, who was implicated in the frauds. Similar frauds have occurred at the naval station at Wilhelmshaven. A Revolutionary Plot. A sensation was caused at the State trial at Cettinje, capital of the principality of Montenegro, of 52 persons for conspiring to overthrow the regime of Montenegro, by a Bosnian journalist named Navie testifying that the bombs seized came from Servia to assassinate Prince. Nicholas. They were, he asserted, manufactured in the State arsenal at Kragujevatz, on the recommendation of the Crown Prince, and with King Peter’s cognizance. Witness added that he had participated.; in the manufacture of the bombs, and then revealed the plot to tlie Montenegrin authorities. Military Brutality. Four sergeants and four bombardiers have been eourt-martialled at Berlin for ill-treating soldiers. No less than six hundred cases were brought against Sergeant Tharnme, and forty against Sergeant Schurz. One soldier committed suicide owing to Thamme’s cruelty. Others were daily flogged, whipped, and belaboured with fists, straps, and sticks.

Recruits were compelled to run the gauntlet of soldiers armed with rods. Thamme was sentenced to fifteen months’ imprisonment and reduction to the ranks, the others receiving terms not exceeding three months.

Cable Rates. The International Telegraphs' Confer* enee has sanctioned a slight reduction in the telegraphic charges between Britain and Europe. Britain proposed to reduce the terminal and transit rates on extra-Euro-pean telegrams to the level of European rates. Germany and Italy strongly opposed this, while the cable companies were unprepared at present to make a corresponding reduction. The proposal was eventually withdrawn.