EUROPE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 9, 26 August 1908, Page 7

EUROPE.

Wholesale Fraud. The renovation and re-issue of used •tamps defrauded the Postal authorities at Moscow alone of half-a-million sterling. Thirty persons, including a Postal official, have been arrested. Most Popular Emperor, All the crowned heads of Europe, and President Roosevelt, sent greetings to the Emperor Francis Josef on Aug. 18, on the Occasion of his 78th birthday, and there were popular rejoicings throughout the monarchy. At the State banquet. King Edward, the Kaiser, and the Czar received special toasts. A wonderful reign indeed has been that Of the Emperor Francis Josef; nothing in all history resembles it. In March of 1848 the populace of Vienne, headed by Btudonls, rose in open rebellion. Milan led the uprising in Lombardy; Venice within her sea cincture became a citadel of revolt; Prague made itself the centre of a Pan-Slav crusade. Under Kossuth, the “Sons of Arpad” sprang to arms. Jellachich, the Ban of Croatia, raised an army of Slavs, and struck into the heart of Hungary against the Magyars. Civil iwar raged throughout the Empire. Rebellious Vienna was etormed by an Imperial ianny. Lees than a month after ■his terrible prelude Ferdinand I. had

at last been persuaded to abdicate, and Francis Josef became sovereign of the peoples who now idolise him. In the whole of human history there arc few examples of a reign beginning amid darker or stranger circumstances. The first shot fired in the insurrection at Prague killed the Governor’s wife, the Princess Windischgratz, in her own apartment. While she lay dead, Prince Windischgratz addressed 'the mob in front of the house with superb self-com-mand; but ho was seized in blind fury, and would have been hung at the next lamp-post but for the arrival of a rescue party of grenadiers. A little later came the ghastly murder in Vienna of Latour, the Minister for War. The national risings in Italy were quickly trampled out, but in Hungary the desperate brilliancy of the Magyar campaign prolonged the struggle for many months after the accession of Francis Josef, and not until Russia bad poured 150,000 men through the Carpathians was a quiet as of death restored. The young sovereign, ■whose name was held up at the outset to the execration of all ages by democrats throughout the world, lias lived to introduce universal suffrage upon his own initiative, and to base the Ilapsburg throne at last upon the loyally of his peoples. Anglo-German Relations. Mr. Lloyd-Gcorgo (Chancellor of the Exchequer) has arrived in Berlin. Speaking to a Press representative, his secretary asserted that the Minister had no political mission, and that no proposals were to be made, but the visit was not without political significance. Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey (Foreign Secretary) have had prolonged interviews with Sir Charles Hardinge (Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs) since the latter’s return from Cronberg, \yl iere he accompanied the King on his visit to the Kaiser... Conquest of the Air. The new military airship and Major von Parseval’e balloon manoeuvred for two hours lust week in Berlin. They met over the Brandenburg Gate, one 60 yards above the other, and sailed by way of the street Unter den I,inden (so callad from its double avenue of limes) to the arsenal. The fund in aid of Count Zeppelin to enable him to continue hie experiments in aeronautics, has reached £lOO,OOO. M. Picquant, French Muiistec for War, travelled in the steerable balloon Excelsior from St. Cloud to Rouen. Reform in Turkey. Reuter's Constantinople Agency reports that the Turkish Government has resolved to engage a British officer to reorganise the navy. The Government has also decided to engage a French financier to advise them in the rehabilitation of the finances. The now Turkish Government has promised to equitably settle the Persian frontier dispute. The Sultan, in pursuance of reforms under tho new Constitution, has dismissed sixty-four of his aides-de-camp, and has given up his stud farm. Fresh restrictions are being daily recorded of lands and money plundered from the State by ex-favourites and arrested Ministers. Reuter’s Agency reports that the abolition of the spy system is estimated to save Turkey a million and a-lialf sterling annually.