September 23, 1899.]
THE PEKING POLITICAL EXILES.
259
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT, over this island, and we publicly bring the mat | (san-jiu-nen-shiki), so called because it was BOR- ter to His Excellency's notice in our columns led for the army in the 30th year of Meiji (1897). in the hope and confidence that he will take. It is expected that from thirty thousand to forty steps to punish the rascals who under cover thousant of the Arisaka weapons will be in the of their official positions. presumed to be hands of the troops by the end of the current have in such a glaringly brutal and dis- year.—Japan Mail. graceful manner. Such treatment in Chi- nese days was received only at the hands of the "howling mob," never at the hands of any
official.
It is stated that Li Tuan-fen, the ex-Presi, dent of the Board of Rites, who was banished to Kashgaria by the Empress Dowager imme diately after her coup d'etat for recommending Kang Yu-wei to the Emperor, is now lying very Il at Lanchou, the capital of Kansu province, so ill indeed that Viceroy T'ao Mu of that city dared not send the exile further west and report.. ed the matter to the Grand Council asking for
Nor is this an isolated case, we are sorry to Instructions. When the Grand Councillors in-say, for the preacher of the Christian Churoh formed the Empress Dowager of her enemy's at Keelung and his wife were beaten by a Jap serious illness, contrary to the general expecta- anese quite recently without the slightest justi. tion, she allowed Li Tuanfon to remain at Lan-fication, and when they made complaint to the chon “until he had convalesced," instead of police about the treatment they had received, insisting upon his proceeding on his journey to as was their right and duty, they were told to join his unfortunate ex-colleague. Chang Yin- be silent and go about their business. It was huan, the ex-Vice-President of the Board of on the occasion of the last typhoon. The Bevenue, who already reached his place of exile Japanese living next to the Church had this summer.-N. C. Daily News.
built his house abutting over the Church, and the typhoon blew doors, windows, etc., into the churchyard right against the church door. put them all in one place just outside the door of the Church, when the Japanese appeared on the scene and beat both the preacher and his wife, saying they meant to steal the stuff. It would, no doubt, have been a very serious thing for the preacher and his wife had not a Japanese Christian who lives opposite the Church come to the rescue of the unfortunate couple.
INDIA
DIA AND THE ANGLO-JAPANESS | The preacher gathered the pieces together and
TREATY.
The Japanese Government has, it is stated, declined the conditions offered by the British Government for admitting India into the Anglo- Japanese Treaty. The conditions are said to relate to the Customs Tariff. The Japanese Government has proposedalternative conditions.
DEATH IN A SULPHUR BATH IN JAPAN.
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A peculiarly and occurrence, says the Japan Advertiser, is reported from Uno Hanazawa. On the 5th inst., about six in the evening, the lifeless body of a young man was found in the sulphur bath for which the place is resorted to. The body was identified as that of a young Englishman, named C. Carsia, who had lately arrived from Shanghai, where, it is understood, he was connected with the Post Office. Mr. Caizia was 28 years of age and is described as being a man of splendid physique. He was apparently in excellent health when last seen alive, and there can be no doubt, though the fact has not yet been officially certified, that he succumbed to heart failure. The body of the unfortunate young man arrived in Yokobams on the 6th inst. and was to be interred in the General Cemetery the same afternoon.
ATTACK BY JAPANESE POLICE ON CHRISTIANS IN FORMOSA.
Formosan.
JAPAN'S FOREIGN LOAN.
Mr. Hayakawa, a secretary in the Finance Department, who went to London in connection fosted by the Japanese Government, returned with the affairs relating to the loan recently on the 4th iust. from his mission. According of the result of his mission to a friend, said that to the Kobe Shimbun, Mr. Hayakawa. speaking very few Englishmen knew anything about the financial situation of Japan. Moreover, the erroneous statements which were published in the Japanese press about Japan's finances were Mr. Hayakawa thought that English capitalists reproduced in the foreign journals. Altogether, had been misled with regard to the financial situation, and in consequence the negotiation for the loan had been rendered extremely difficult. He thought, however, that it was satisfactory to get subscribers at 90 with inter- est at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum, in view of the condition of the money market in London.Kobe Chronicle.
WEAPONS.
The following is a translation of a letter re- | JAPAN'S PROGRESS IN MILITARY ceived from reliable parties at Auland, describing a most disgraceful attack which was made by the Japanese police on the Christians there :-
ist
FATAL ACCIDENT TO A VOLUN TEER FIREMAN AT SHANGHAI,
A fire occurred at Shanghai on the evening of the 12th September in which some fifteen Chinese houses in the Rue Hue', in the French Lettlement, were destroyed
A sad accident occurred to one of the Hong. kow Company's firemen, Mr. J. Smith, who, it seems, had clambered up to the vernudah-of-u. burning house. Whilst there the verandah gave way, precipitating him into the street. Hes sustained severe injuries, and was carried into the Central French Police station where Mr. Alexander, the apothecary there, attended to his injuries until the arrival of Dr. Blanc, when it was found that the unfortunate young man's thigh was broken, and he had several© severe wounds on the head. He was u conta veyed in an unconscious condition in a hand ambulance to the General Hospital, he suc oumbed the same night. It appears, says the N. C. Daily News, that the deceased, on the collapse of the woods verandab, was precipitat ed head foremost to the ground, thereby severely fracturing has skull besides breaking his left thigh in two places, and consequently he never regained consciousness. Mr. Smith, who wagƐ only twenty-nine years of age was a native of Shanghai about three years, having been paid Philadelphia, U. 8. A., and had only been in- off from the U. 8. 8. Boston in 1896. He after joined Messrs. Hall & Holts, Ld., in April last. wards served a year in the Water Police andə His connection with the Volunteer Fire Brigade made himself most conspicuous by his willing». dates from June last, but during that time he
ness and energy. His remains were necorded i a fireman's funeral.
A JAPANESE RAILWAY IN OKIEN,
the Chinese and Japanese Governments have
The Sinwênpao learns from Foochow that. come to an agreement by which the former allows merchants of the latter to have
Foochow via Yênpingfa-with the borders of Kiangse province, and a branch road from Foo- chow to amoy. The estimated cost is fifty million yen, as to which the head of the Japan. ese syndicate in question has stated he, hs. every prospect of getting it fully subscribed As a beginning several million yen have already been guaranteed in Japan. The shareholders of these railways must be Chinese or Japanese.
construction of thè trunk, railway the entire
JAPANESE MISSION TO CHỊNA.
repay the Empress Dowager's visit of_sourtesy represented by the secret envoys Lia and Ch'ing, and that the Taungli Yamen, having been informed of the intended visit to Peking. has notified the Shanghai mandarins to give every honour and courtesy to the Mikado's envoy when he arrives at that port. There are also reports in the same quarter that the Japanese envoy has been empowered to reply on behalf of the Mikado to all the proposals brought forward by the Empress Dowager, one of them being the proposed alliance.-N. Daily News.
We cannot but endorse the Jiji Shimpo's "On September the 2nd in the evening when remark that Japan has made remarkable pro- in the Church at the hour for holding service, gress in the matter of small arms during theN. C. Daily News. (about 7 p.m.), a house took fire in the Meiji ora. At first her troops were supplied neighbourhood. The preacher, Lim In Leng, with the heterogeneous weapons that had been immediately sent five of the Christians to help imported by the various feudal chiefs. Then put out the fire, (there are in the village she put Enfields into their hands. Then fol- It is stated in local mandarin circles that the not more than say 12 Christians all told includ-lowed Sneiders. It was with the Sneiders that Mikado has appointed a high official of the ing five women, one blind man and children). the Government's forces encountered the Sat-Japanese Foreign Office to come to China to When the fire was extinguished these five men suma insurgents, and but for the Sneider the returned to the Chapel. They had just finished result might have been very different. That singing a hymn and were engaged in prayer, was in 1876, and for some years the Sneider en- when suddenly three Japanese police-joyed high esteem. But 1883 found Japan with men entered the building, snatched the Bible
a rifle of her own, the Murata. It was not a new out of the preacher's hands, threw it on invention, but it may certainly claim the cred the floor, and with a bamboo which they had it of having been a clever adaptation of in their hands commenced beating about several systems. Three years later it was right and left, upset the preacher's desk that further improved, but still no idea of a maga- was on the platform, and said it was because sine rife was entertained. In 1890, this Mu- they didn't go to put out the fire. The next rata weapon was converted into a repeater, day the preacher went to the Kenchatsu to but the process of manufacturing the new arm complain, and asked him to send for the neigh-proceeded slowly, and, when the war with China bours who were not Christians to testify who- | broke out in 1894 the troops had to take the ther they, the Christians, went to help put out field without magazine rifles. There was a the fire or not, but no redress was obtainable. general impression at the time that the Japanese He was told to held his tongue and go about forces were as well armed as the Chinese. his business...
They were not. Most of the Chinese had re- peating rifles, and the Japanese had the old one. round weapon. Not until the Guards and the Fourth Division were dispatched from Tokyo was it found possible to put into the fluid corps fully armed with magasine weapons. Then, instantly obeyed, 1897, the Arisaka rifle was adopted. Its special features are, of course, kept secret, but the Japanese claim for it that it is, on the whole, better than any rifle now used in Europe. This is the much-talked-of “ thirtieth-
We have made inquiries into this case, and have every reason to believe that the facts are a stated in the above letter. It goes with out saying, nothing could be more unjust, or less calculated to inspire respect for the Japanese oficials..
No wonder there are rebels if this is the way the people are treated. We feel sure, however, such treatment is against the wishes Majesty the Emperor, and against the of the most excellent Viceroy who rules
CONSULAR AUTHORITY IN MANILA.
The following curious notification appears in the Manila papers :-----
“Masters of merchantmen attending at Her Majesty's Consulate, Manila, are informed that any order given them by the Vice-Consul, con- nected with the Consular work, must be in-
"The British Vice-Consul-ranks with a Major in her Majesty's Regalar Army and takes pre- cedence of every captain in the service; he also- take precedence of Naval Lieutenants under sight years' service.
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