May 20, 1897.J
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
401
without any further.tron amps were disarmed
Lin's house on the Bubbling Well Road, the money would be divided amongst the share- At 8 o'clock yesterday morning No. 8 Com- the hosts being Tuotais Tsai and Liu, on behalf of holders. It is now reported that the money has pany was ordered to proceed to reinforce t
and three more
of the the Viceroy Liu Kun-yi. The large courtyard of at last been received by the agents, Messrs. guard at the camp the house had been transformed into a banquet- Jardine, Matheson & Co., or will be under their ringleaders were executed. At Doon Com- ting hall, and three large tables placed forming control at an early date. But if this rumour panies Nos. 1 and 2 went out to relieve the three sides of a square, with another smaller one in is incorrect it is at any rate the father to the guard and the other three the centre reserved for Chinese guests. Among wish, but we have good reason to believe such
All the foreign- drilled troops behaved splendidly, the discipline these were the Shanghai Magistrate, the magis-is. correct, nor can we understand why such trates of the two Mixed Couris, the Tantai's an account has been outstanding for an in-being perfect, and the cfficers peak in glowing
terms of their behaviour. interpreters, and many others. The lower end of definite number of years when we have a com the hall had been fitted up for theatricals, and petent staff of Consuls to see to the settlement. rhe proceedings were enlivened by a specially -Shanghai Daily Press. tetained troupe of native actors.
Among the presents brought by the Embassy, which fill 48 large cases, is the grand cordon of the Order of St. Catherine, to be bestowed on tthe Empress, and several large vases of lapis azu li.. All the presents were personally selected by H.I.M the Czar, and are valued at about 300,000 roubles. Among the attachés of the Embassy is M. Syromiatnikoff, one of the editors of the Novne Vremya, 'and ap' official connected with the Ministry of Justice, who will proceed | from Peking to Vladivostock for the purpose of enquiring into the working of the courts there, and afterwards return to Russia through Siberia. Baron Schaffhausen is also attached to the Embassy as the representative of the Minster of Finance, to enquire into the details of the proposed railway through Manchuria.
The Embassy will leave here on Friday in the Haean (not the Hsinchi, as previously reported), convoyed by a Russian man-of war, for Tientsin, en route for Peking. In all probability the Em- bassy will return to Russia, by way of America, but nothing definite has yet been settled with regard to route.-N. C. Daily New.
SHANGHAI AND THE DIAMOND · JUBILEE.
A.SAD SHOWING. *
The following letter appears in the N. C. Daily News:-
Sir, It is with great regret that the Work. ing Committee find themselves compelled to ask the indulgence of the community in considera- bly curtailing their programme for the day, celebration previously laid before the public meeting, in consequence of the subscriptions not amounting to half the estimated require ments:-I am, etc.,
13th May,
FRANK M. GRATTON, Chairman of the Working
Committee.
THE "KOWSHING" AFFAIR
REPORTED SETTLEMENT OF CLAIMS.
SELIQUS MUTI Y NEÀR WOOSUNG.
Shanghai, 10th May.
A rather serious mutiny broke out at Setzelin, about eight miles from Woosung, among the native-drilled troops quartered there. There ure in all four camps, each of 500 men, and after the inspection by the Governor of the Province some three weeks ago, it was decided to discharge about half of them, retaining some of the younger and smarter men to be drilled under foreign supervision at Woosung, re. placing them in the meanwhile with 500 of It was foreign-drilled men from the forts. intended that each of the men discharged should be given three months' extra pay, but with this they were dissatisfied, demanding seven months' pay instead of the three, and on Friday they proceeded to loot the officers' quarters. pulling down the houses and breaking up everything that could not be carried away.
On Saturday morning a telephone message was received at Woosung to the effect that the mutineers were firing volleys, and were threatening to shoot General P'ang, who was in command at Setzelin, and asking for assist- ance. Major von Reitzenstein at once gave orders for the troops, to hold themselves in readiness to turn out, and about 200 men were. sent out in advance for patrol duty. At 10.30 another message was received, asking urgently for assistance, and at 11 o'clock all the Ger- man-drilled troops were under arms, Seven of the infantry companies at once marched off to the scene of the mutiny, No. 7 Company, under Lieut. Quassowski, being sent to guard a large magazine, situated about half way between Woosting and the mutinous camps, as it was feared that the mutineers would attempt to blow it up. Accompanying the infantry were a squadron of cavalry under Count Nay- hanss, and one battery of artillery under Lieut. Maaschke. The guns were dragged the whole way by the artillerymen, taking three hours to cover the distance, which considering the state of the roads was an exceedingly creditable per- formance. On getting near the camps the cavalry scouts brought in word that all but Many of our readers will remember that when the northernmost camps were quiet. The the Indo-China's steamer Kowshing was sunk main body of troops arrived at the camp about in the Yalu river by a Japanese cruiser, at the 2 p.m. and a cordon was at once formed round commencement of bostilities between the Japa-it and orders given for the men to load; two of nese and Chinese, there was a good deal of dis- the guns being placed in a position command. cussion as to the liability and whether the Indo-ing the gate and loaded with case shot. The China Navigation Company would be losers, mutineers were all outside the walls on the owing to the steamer being chartered under the arrival of the troops and greeted them with political tension then existing, although she was shonts of Yang Kuei-tze," but on the order cleared by the British Consul. It is therefore being given to load they fled into the camp. a moot question as to whether the insurance They were then ordered to give up their arms, companies or underwriters could be held liable which they refused to do, so the German officers for the loss providing policies were existing proceeded to take them away forcibly. All the upon the steamer, and whether the political muskets and ammunition were taken from them, troubles would vitiate those policies. It after- and the heads of all lances, halberds, and tri- wards transpired that the risk which the Kow-dents were broken off. The ringleaders were shing carried in conveying troops to Korea was of course appreciated by the agents. Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., and they, with that business acumen for which they are generally credited, made arrangements that all risk would be on the account of the Chinese Government. Practically therefore the Indo- China Steam Navigation Co. is guaranteed against all loss and it is only to be presumed that in estimating the value of the Kowshing when accepting the guarantee a reasonable profit would be included over and above the initial cost of the company. But up to the present no distribution of the proceeds from the sinking of the Kowshing has been made to the shareholders, although many anxious inquiries have been made with
placed under arrest and the rest allowed to go where they pleased. By four o'clock every- thing was quiet and a drum-head court-martial was held on the principal ringleader, who was the instigator of the attempt to shoot General P'ang, and he was summarily decapitated. Not a single official was present at the execution, all of them with the single exception of the General, who was too frightened to fly, having cleared out. Nos. 3 and 4 Companies, under Lieut. von Nauendorff, were left at the camp all night, and No. 7 remained on guard at the magazine until yesterday morning. Patrols of cavalry were also out all night, as only the ringleaders were under arrest and it was feared that some of those who were at large might contemplate looting Woosung village, but there view to ascertaining whether was no further trouble of any kind during the it was a fact that a handsome sum of | night.
|
Shanghai, 11th May. Four ringleaders of the mutineers at Betzelin, one from each cump, were beheaded on Sunday evening. Everything was quiet yesterday and things appeared to have settled down into their normal condition.
There was at least one humorous incident connected with the military trouble near Woo- sung. When the foreign-drilled troops marched out to relieve General Pen-not Fang as originally stated-they took with them the brass band which has as yet reached only sn, intermediate stage in the knowledge of Western music. After the recalcitrant troops had been disarmed the foreigners thought to enliven the drooping spirits of General Pan with the strains of Daisy Bell," but after a while he besought them to stop that "foreign music,-N. C. Daily News,
**
WRECK OF THE “DORIS.”
Nagasaki, 14th May. The German steamship Doris went asbore on the north-western extremity of Tsugima island during thick weather on the night of the 7th May while en route from Wladivostock to Nagasaki and is badly wrecked. Her captain, officers and crew, with 45 Chinese passengers were brought here yesterday. Captain Koch, the secretary of the German Consulate, with the underwriters' agent, Mr. Boeddingbans, are to leave to-day in a tug for the scene of the wreck, which it is feared will become a total loss.--Nagasaki Shipping List.
· REDUCTION OF TELEGRAPH RATES TO JAPAN.
At the International Telegraph Conference hell some time ago in Buda-Pesth, the proposal of the representative of Japan, says the Tokyo Asahi, to reduce the telegraph rates between Japan and foreign countries was adopted. When the chief of the Shanghai branch office of the Great Northern Telegraph Company visited Japan last month, the Department of Com- munications conferred with him and contracted to reduce the telegraph rate between Japan and Shanghai (which was formerly 76 sen per word) to 22.2 sen from July to September and to 24 sen after October. As a consequence, the tele- graph rate to Hongkong and London through Shanghai is also to be reduced. It seems curious that from October the subscription is increased to 24 sen from 22.2 sen. The increase is due to the adoption of the gold standard from October, and the consequent change in the value of money. As the rate is thus reduced to about
of the former charge from July next, a con- siderable increase in telegraph business to and from Japan is expected.-Rising Sun.
FORMOSA.
·
[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.
Twatutia, 9th May. On 8th May the Chinese remaining in For. mosa and living outside of the treaty ports became subjects of Japan. It was thought that the day might be taken as an occasion for a rebellion as the North, has been infected for a considerable period with a troublesome class of natives-half rebels and half brigands. Their exploits during the last few months have been limited nearly exclusively to armed robbery. Rumours have been rife, however, for some time that a large party of rebels were making prepara- tions to attack the capital and Twa utia, the latter place with the intention of destroying the Foreign Consulates and business houses, be- lieving that such an act would embroil Japan with the Foreign Powers and eventually result in Japanese evacuation of the island. Whether the rebel party ever really had any such designs or not is unknown, but it is true that small armed parties came down near the city on several
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