July 4, 1998.]
UNDERSTANDING.
The following is the text of the now dis- oredited" agreement
bet rren Kussis end Japan over Manchur and Corean affairs. It appeared first in a 20kro despatch of the 17th inst to the Yushin Nippo: -
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT,
· THE ALLEGED RUSSO-JAPANESE | coronation. The mission also visited · ngland, |
where the late Marquis was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Victorian Order and Lo Feng-lu was unde a K.VO. Upon the return of Li Hang-chang's mission abroad, Lo eng-lu, through the recommendation of his patron Li Hung-chang, was in November of the same year promoted. to be au expotaot Metropolitan officer of the 4th gae and appointed Minister to Great Britain, Italy anl Belgium, where he remained un'il the winter of 1802, being prostrated during the latter period of his term of office with paralysis from which he seems never to have recovered. As already stated above, the late Minister was diplomat, hence ho did not especialy shine in more of a sta·lent and bokworm than a
the latter sphere"while in England.
The Government of Japan and Rnasia respectively, being desirous of avoiding a. con fict of their respective interests, both political and commercial, in Manoharia and Corea, and also to avoid the infringement of their respec tive rights and intelis, and with the object of promoting friendly and cordial relations in the future, bave drawn up the following stipulations:-
I. It is agreed that he Russian Government shall carry out with the least possible delay the evacuation of Manchuria in the second stag › – the withdrawal of the remaind 'r of the troops in Shingking province and this troops in Kirin province. The Russiau authorities, howevor, shall be allowed to station a polios force neo:s- sary for the protection of the Eastern Chinese Railway and the rights already obtained by Russia within such limits but shall not infringe the sovereign power of Chins or interfere with the commerce of Japan.
II. T e Russian Government h is no objection to opening Mukden Yingkow (Newchwang) and Tatung-ka to the trade of Japiu and other countries, and agrees that in case Japrues subjects travelling in Manchuria are molested by bandits r interfered with in any other way the Russian police force shall render them every assistance.
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III. When the Japanese Government desire to establish consulates in the three cities referred to is the preceding Article, the Russian Government undertakes to offer no objection.
IV. The present administrative organisa. tion of Manchuris shall be maintained as at present, providing that such organisation does not interfere with the rights and pri vileg s to be enjoyed by the Japanese. The Russian Governmental o consents t Japanese settling within certain limits in Manchuria,
V. The Russian Government, recognising the growth of Japanese influence in Corea, has no objection to Japan acquiring the following privileges, providing that Russian interests be not prejudiced thereby: - The construction of a railway from Seoul to Wiju. 2. The ap- pointment of a Japanese subject as obief ad- viser to the Corean Government, 3. That the privilege now enjoyed by Russians of cutting lumber on Ul-leung-do (an island near Gensao) shall be assigned to the Japanese.
VI. This sie porandum is provisionally agreed upon, and is to be signed by the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Japanese Plenipotentiary on behalf of th ir respective Governments before it takes effect.
A TRIP TO SAM CHUN.
a.m.
It was not fum Chun for which we originally started our objective was a British police station in the New Te ritory; but when it is explained that our journey tegin amid the torrential downpour of Sunday, douh less there wil ba no surprise felt that a trip so nudertaken should terminate at a different point from that which was intended to be reached. We two ¦ travellers had a cheerles< pro-pect when the
"boy" called us at 4.47
the rain was coming down in streams, and vivit lightning flashed between the thunder- rol s. But there were roseat. streaks ia the East and we resolved to attempt the venture. To gulp a mouthful of tea and masticate a bite of breakfast were the work of a few minutes Rickshas had been got from soms mysterious place by the "small toy," and we were about to rnsh downstairs and enter them when horror of horrors-it was found that whisky was oozing from the iottom of our provision satchel. The spirit-flask had become uncorked and lavishly decanted all its contents over the sand wiches and a c1p.
And there was not another drop in the house.
But we set out. All the way to the wharf towards West Poit from which the launch for
figures, the first Europeans we They enquired kindly about our and when they heard of them were moi generous in their offers of assistance They were Messrs. Whaite ant Corbin of the Chinens Customs. There was no use attempting the passage of the river, was their word, and we might as well make the best of matters and ' accompany. th me to the Customs quarters: Gladly we âvailed ours-Ires of their offer and soon were revelling in dry clothes which if some sizes too big or to smell as the osse might be were at any rate as welcome as flowers in Spring: still the spectacle of a five-feet-four man in six-feet-four men's pants does exercise the cribbage-board, and speculating on the fall of risiblo ficulties. With gossip, good ohwer, the
the flood we p ssed away the time until dark, but even though the spate showed signs of subsiding and green parts of the higher growing barvest began to show through the area of y llow water, the river itself was still impassable and we three derelicts had perforce to stay for the night.
Seen even under a rainy atmosphere Sam Chun is a beautiful place; but for bull-frogs there is no spot on earth can touch it. Perhaps it was the rain that brought them, out but at any rate that night th y proved “ the bull-frog a'n't no nightingale." "It was a sort of con- solation that next morning the flocks of ducks did such havoc among their innumerable off- spring.
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It
And in the morning what a change was there, No signs of a flood to met the first glance. The paddy-fields are green and fresh The river delta are nearly invisible between their banks. Ah! but yes. There away out on the view lies a launch-the Yutsum—high_and dry amid the folds; and nearby is a junk in similar plicht. And when one descends to the erstwhile gigantic lake-bd on finds the walks and the bridges broken, and the townspeople complain of flooding of their houses and shops and great damage done. It was only three days before the rains came that they had been praying fervently for it. came in more abundance than was desired but the Sam Chin river starts, rain. thuuder happily did not greatly injare the ripening and lightning coatinced, and we caught the
crops and so "good joss" once more is thanked steamer by the skin of our teeth for it had and as we glided down the river the Yellow already cast off when our dead-beaten ricksha-Dragon on the Cns om Station faded gradually | pa'lers an up to the wharf. No Europeans on board but ourselves. The coxswain directed na to go on the bridge-deck and we did. But from our point of vantage we could not see farther than a hundred yards. So we rau out beyond Capsa mna Pass, steering by the compass aud failing on our part to recognise even the old familar landmarks; and then we gained the open, eily sea, it waves beat level by the rain. Never once during our three-hours' run to t'e mouth of the river did the rain cease. It beat in upon as on the bridge dick with unabated fury, rendering mackintoshes and underclothing alike wet through and through. It was theu our whisky-sodden sandwiches came to be devoured, and with what relish!
THE LATE LO FENG-LU, The N.-C. Daily News publishes the following obituary of H. Sir Chichen Lo Feng-lu, K. V. Ö., late Chinese Minister to the Courts of S. James, the Quirinal, and Brussels. The late Minister was a member of the pioneer class of the Foochow Naval School when it was first established at Pagoda Anchorage in 1870, under the tutelage of the late Mr. James Carroll, a graduate of the Naval College at Greenwich. Being a particularly bright student, the late Minister, after a course of four years' study in Fooohow, was selected with a few other fellow students to go to England to finish hisstudies, and being more of a bookworm than ambitious of a seafaring life, he entered the diplomatic service of his country and was appointed soon after- wards an attache to the Chinese Legation at Berlin under the late Minister, Li Tau-ya. He remained in Germany for several years, subse- quently returning to China and joining the service of the late Marquis Li Hung-chang at Tientsin in 1889 To the late Ma quis, Lo Feng-lu owed all his advancement in official life, having joined Li as a sub-perfect (5th grade) and being successively promoted to the rank of expectant Taotai of th First-class, with the brevet button of the second grade. In March 1890 Lo Feng-in accompanied the late Marquis Li Hang-chang to St. Petersburg to congratulate the Tsar Nicholas II. on his
As soon as the rive was optered upon it was obvious what tremendous raius had beer-falling paddy and cane-fi-lds were under water. The ap-country. Square miles upon square miles of channel of the river was lost in a huge lake covering the whole valley. Our steamer, the Yingfat, was unable to proceed up as far as usual towards Sam Chun. About a mile below the city the passengers were taken off by ferry-boats and these by dint of laborions poling and rowing were got up over the paddy fields to a point opposite the city but cut off by a wide-spreading torrent with a fearful current. Fam Chun is in Chinese territory. The river on which it stands is British and on the opposite side of the river is the New Territ ry. So that on landing we and a likewise unfortunate Indian constable bound for Shuug Shui, equally wet and wretched with ourselves, were made aware of the still further dejecting news that it was utterly impossible to cross the river-and indeed it looked it—and that we must be pre- pared to stop the night in that seemingly in- hospitable, watery country; for by this time our launch had long turned about and gone back to Hongkong.
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But, a is often the case, when things seem at the worst they turn for the better; and so it was with ours. Suddenly out of the flooded paddy fields stalked two oilskin-clad
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from our view.
THE RECENT RAIN-STORM.
Later reports show that the damage by the rains, though in no case serious, is more wide. spread than at first supposed. The wester, portion of the city deems to have suffered the most heavily. About 7 a.m. 'on the 8th alt. an immense quantity of earth and a rock weighing about twenty tons slipped from the hillside below Belcher's Battery and preci- pitated itself against the back wall of house No. 52, Queen's Road West, making a large hole therein and leaving the remainder of the wall in such a shaky condition that the Public Works Department had to be operations might be carried out as soon as immediately 'noti ed in order that shoring
possible. Bonham Road is blocked near Ripon Terrace by the debris of a retaining wall which gave way during the storm, Hospital Road shows some very bad ruts, and Richmond Road near" Larkspur" is rendered dangerous by a subsidence which occurred there. The rush of water from the nullah at Upper Richmond Road has made passenger trafic almost impossib'e, and the nullah itself is choked by tons of displaced material. Two landslips took place on Pekfulum Road near Belcher's Forts and one near the slaughter-house at Kennedytown, besides minor happenings, ruch as the cutting up of roads here and there, the aprooting of trees, and the damaging of lighting plaut.
The state of affairs is practically similar in others parts of the Colony, both in Victoria and tn Kowloon. Wanchai beers: severe traces in parts of the severity of the... rains The Kennedy Road is impassible' in par through landslips, and at Happy Valley the Raos-course and recreation grounds inundated. In Kowloon, the most serious damage is to be seen on the road leading to the Walled City, which is ploughed up badly
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