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over the hill. Someone in the Hongkong celled out, “He's shot himself !" and they up and raw that the deceased had face downwards. The deceased was bleed. from the head very freely, and two members of the party tried to stop the bleeding with their handkerchiefs. He then went away with another to get something on which to carry the body, when they got back Govett was dead. He ared to be alive wheti he left. They put the
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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yon to the door and carried it about 300 vanad to admit of a direct fire below. A raft was of Europe by Russian despotism urged on by
four Chinaman took hold and carried it ferryboat. The ferry boat took the body down the river, when it was transferred to their own sampan. He saw the pistol produced lying by the side of the deceased. He picked it up and opened the bolt to see if there were any more cartridges, but there were no more. The decased was sitting down about six yards from witness, but he could not see him as he sat just round a bend. Some shots had been fired from pistol about half-an-hour before. Some of people had been looking at the pistol after As far as he was aware the pistol belonged the deceased. He thought Mr. Jordan vas sitting next to the deceased, but he could
not be sure.
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Beptember 9, 1899. sarrying a rope with them. Hardly a man | the Yellow River would be suicidal folly on her who saw the not felt that it could succeed, but part, for not only would the ultimate result of slowly and strongly they struck ont, advancing | that be the expelling of herself ( ermany) from directly in the face of the enemy. While they Shantung to make room for the Russian Bear were in the water the men poured the hottest, fast- - as Japan was expelled from Linotung for est fire they know of into the Filipino trenches. the same purpose but that a half century or At last the swimmers reached the opposite baok less of Russian militarism in North China and made fast the rope. Once across there was would result in the raising and drilling of vast very little danger, as the trenches were too high || hordes of Asiatics to be utilised for the conquest hastily thrown together, and Colonel Fanston the priesthood of the equally despotic Greek and eight men began their perilous trip across, Church. guiding themselves by the ropes. Finally, when about two companies had succeeded in crossing, the little band charged on the works from which the insurgents had begun to retreat, and taking possession of the enemy's trenches they poured in an enfilading fire that broke the back bone of the long river fortifications. The rest of the Kausas men crossed over the bridge, un- der fire, in single file, quickly followed by the Montana regiment."
Reverting to General Funston, some commo. tion was caused in the States by the publication of an interview in which the General is said to have spoken in favour of "less gunpowder and more diplomsoy" in the Philippines, and also Laurence Bignell, a naval cadet on board the to have given expression to the following senti- Orlande, another member of the shooting party, ments." Strange as it may seem. I am almost also gave evidence. He said that the deceased a peace at any price man, when life and property died about ten minutes after the shooting.can be saved. It is almost a crime not to follow When they were sitting down he could not see that rule, whatever the circumstances are argu- the deceased without leaning forwards. He did |ing against it. I am a Republican, but I am not notion where the pistol was after the firing an anti-expansionist, though not a bitter one of the shot. The deceased fired out of the Big syndicates and capitalists will be greatly mamo pistol the previous day, and he benefited by the retention of these islands, but thought he fired one shot from it that morn- ontside of a few exceptional individual cases I ing: He saw the pistol in the deceased's can see no advantage in their possession by the -hands" about ten minutes before the accident. United States. The islands are so thickly po- Staff Burgeon Biden, recalled, said he should pulated and labour so cheap, there certainly is say that death was caused by injury to the brain, no inducement for the American labourer." and hemorrhage caused by the wounds in the Commenting upon the above an American contemporary said:"The men who govern the government will have to look after this young soldier. If the truth is told so pro- digally there is danger that the syndicates will be disappointed in their hope of benefit. The people must be made to believe that this Philippine bu~iness is pure patriotism, without any alloy of interest. To have this Kansan blurt out the truth is disgusting. If it becomes known that the men who join the army and go to the Orient will fight, not for the country, but for the syndicates, they may object. Funston should be silenced:"
Midshipman Herbert, recalled, said he had fired this pistol off several times. Smokeless powder was used.
His Worship instructed Inspector Warnock to try and find out who was sitting next to the deceased at the time the shot was fired, and adjourned the inquiry until Tuesday next.
AMERICAN VOLUS PEERS IN
HONGKONG,»
A GALLANT REGIMENT, On Wednesday the U.Stransport Tartar ar- rived from Manila on her way home with some 1,200 American troops, including some 800 mem- bers of the Kansas Volunteers, together with their gallant Gommander Gener Fanston. It is ex- pected that they will resume their homeward voy
in two or three days, after the Tartar has bosdi libked.
Kansas Volunteers have been some nine or ten months in the Philippines, and have done their share of work. They indeed played a pro- minent part on an occasionion which the Insur rent army experienced one of its most orushing defeats, namely, at the of Calumpit, when General Fanston headed his men in one of the most heroic actions of the campaign.
The advance towards Calumpit was com. menced on the morning of 25th April, and by six o'clock on the evening of that day the troops found themselves on the other side of the Bax- bag River, where they encamped for the night. The Río Grande River still separated them from the town, and as the bridge had been des- troyed it was recognised that the Americans had no light task before them on the morrow, as the Insurgents were strongly entrenched for three miles along the north bank of the Rio Grande.
The battle opened at day-light, and for three hours it was give and take, with scarcely a pause, save to allow the heated rifles to cool Our correspondent describing the action at the
time wrote
The great stool bridge that spans the Rio Grande so damaged that the men could vory slowly, and with great danger, ing under fire from the opposite Finally two-men of the Kansas alipped down the bank
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On Thursday a representative of the Daily Press saw the General, and asked if he had been correctly reported. He said most emphatically no, and added that he thought the time for diplomacy was past with the Filipinos; they would have to be fought until they gave up. But he thought that diplomacy could be used with the Mahomedans of the southern islands. These Mahomedans were not in sympathy with the insurrection, and were only hostile to the Spaniards because the latter interfered with their religion. Since General Bates had assured them that their religion would not be interfered with in the slightest degree they had been quite friendly to the Americana 42
THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN
CHINA.
(Contributed.)
the impression that as soon as Great Britain be
As many residents in the Far East are under
comes involved in war in South Africa, Russia and France will seize the opportunity to steal a march on her out here and carry out their scheines of extensive seizure of Chinese terri- tory and blocking out British trade, even if they do not go to the length of forcing a war with the intention of ousting Britain from the Far East altogether, it may be as well to con-
sider, cursorily, other factors in the political situation in China, one of which, and the most important
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In such an attack on the liberties of Europe by the semi-Asiatic Russian legions reinforced by their multitudinous Asiatic soldiery, armed and drilled on modern principles. Germany and Austria would have to bear the brunt of the attack, and should France bp, as is possible, blind enough to co-operate with Russia the German speaking peoples would experience shock which would cripple them for a century even if they did not go down before the attack.
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Germany knows something of militarism her- self and is not going to allow Russia to carry her conquests in Asia beyond the point at pre- sont attained.
The German Emperor anil his responsible advisers, too, are fully alert to their futuro interests, and having discovered what great interests they have at stake in the Asiatic Continent, and how infinitely they exceed those they have been trying to build up in tropical Africa, are moulding their policy in accordance with the knowledge they have recently acquired. House Germany's readiness to give Britain a free hand in Africa in return for British ac- quiescence to and support of Germany's interest in her sphere in North China, which includes all the northern Chinese provinces and the Valley of the Yellow River. It is as a weapon to wield against Russian aggression in Europe and Asia that Germany has sought and acquired the friendship of Turkey.
A consideration of the above facts will point, naturally, to an alliance of Eugland. Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey, ready to crush the aggressive. Russian giant as soon as he attempts further conquests. Japan, too, if not one of this combination of European Powers ready-to obook fürther Russian aggression, either in the East or the West, is preparing on her own 80 count to oppose her concentrated efforts to any further Russian aggression in Eastern Asia, especially in Korea.
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There are two more factors which Russia will have to contend with in any further attempts at conquest in East or West. The first is the Roman Catholic Church which has no notion to allow its most powerful rival, the Greck Church, to override it and crush out its existence, as has been done in Fo- land and as is now being attempted with the liberties and religion of the industrious and law- abiding Finlanders. The second factor is the power of the great Jewish financiers, who have felt the heel of Russia both on the liberties of their people and their religion, as proof of which Russia has come to the nd of her borrowing powers and finds that she now fails to raise the necessary finances with rhich to carry out the grand projects she has laid down as prelimin- ary to the, conquest of, first, Asia and then Europe.
Russia is coquetting alternately with Franos and with America in the hope of raising more funds, which are now so necessary to her. Her expressions of friendship if favourably receiv are quickly followed by an attempt to raise a loan and she has even attempted and succeeded in, raising a few millions on the London market
immediately after what ap eared to be a friendly understanding with Britain as regards her sphere in Chius.
Britain:
1: may, therefore, with a light beart undertake her work of creating order out chaos in South Africa, realizing that the
forces opposed to both Russia and France are too great to enable them safely to under-
bulk of the, is entirely overlooked by the take any aggression under the Impression
which has, of course, never occurred to those who study the future of China and who find the future of China or any other im portant subject too much trouble, or of insuf fcient consequence, to give even a momentary thought to. few hundred
Germany has grasped the fact that to allow Russia to occupy the northern provinces of Chins and then roll down into the Valley of
idge mped into the the opposite
kupie
rent her from looking to the safety of her that Britain's war in South Africa will pre- interests in China, and if any attempt made to oust her from her dominant posit in
the East she will prove well able to promptly crush it. She will be the more ready to do so having the knowledge that such an attempt la made under the impression that she will unable to resgat it..
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