Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 29, 1909

— Russia has determined to reduce the number of her holidays from ninety-one to sixty-three, including Sundays.

— A small sailing vessel carrying twenty-two passengers capsized in New York harbor on July 18, and ten of the occupants were drowned.

— Don Carlos, the pretender to the Spanish throne, died at Varese, in Lombardy, Italy, on July 18. His son, Don Jaime, will continue the policy of his father. He intends to make the Carlist movement more modern and more aggressive.

— On July 16 the shah of Persia, as a result of the continued successes of the Nationalists, sought safety in the Russian legation. This was regarded by the Persians as a voluntary abdication, and the shah’s son was chosen to take his place, with a regent in control of affairs until the boy shall reach his majority. The shah will go into exile in Russian territory. The new Persian government is already preparing to hold popular elections for the new assembly. Popular government now seems assured in the land of Cyrus and Xerxes.

— There is grave possibility of an outbreak of hostilities in South America over the boundary dispute between Peru and Bolivia. Some time ago the dispute between these two countries was submitted to arbitration, the president of Argentina acting as the arbiter. His decision, just made known, is very distasteful to the Bolivians, and they declare that they will not abide by it. War talk is rife, and it is considered by many that Argentina’s importation of $37,000,000 in gold is for the purpose of providing a “war chest” to finance military operations in case of hostilities.

— A number of woman-suffrage riots have occurred in London during the last few days. The members of the woman’s suffrage organization have made determined efforts to obtain access to the premier, but without success, and many of them have been arrested as a result of the riots incident to their efforts.

— The estimates for continuing work next year on the Panama Canal have been approved by the Secretary of War and transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury. The amount required for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1910, will be $45,100,000. This is about $12,000,000 greater than the amount appropriated for the current year. The increase is regarded as necessary by the canal officials because of the fact that there will be much structural material needed in building the locks.

— German educators are pointing with satisfaction to the latest statistics on international education, which show that Germany is maintaining its position as the most highly educated nation in the world. The percentage of illiteracy in the German empire, these statistics show, is one twentieth of 1 per cent, as compared with .1 per cent in Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland; 1 per cent in Great Britain; 4 per cent in France; 10.2 per cent in Belgium; and so on until Rumania is reached at the bottom of the list, with a percentage of 75. The battle against illiteracy among the great nations shows the most positive results in France, where the percentage of illiteracy in the army has been reduced from 19.13 in 1872 to 4.83 in 1905. The highest percentage of gain in literacy is shown by Bulgaria, which has reduced the proportion of illiterate adults from 70 per cent in 1878, the year of its liberation from the Turkish yoke, to less than 40 per cent in 1905,—a result which places that country in the foremost rank among the Balkan nations.

— A hurricane which swept over the Gulf of Mexico on July 21, visited Galveston, Tex., and its vicinity, resulting in the loss of twenty-one lives, and the destruction of property to the value of $750,000. The new two-million-dollar sea wall, built after the great hurricane which wrecked the city a few years ago, saved the city from a repetition of that disaster.

— War is on in earnest in Morocco between the Spanish and the Moroccan tribesmen. Several battles have already occurred, with important losses on both sides. The Spanish commander at Melilla, Morocco, has asked for re-enforcements of 40,000 men, but the Spanish soldiers are manifesting great reluctance toward entering the campaign. Upon two different occasions detachments of troops designated for embarkation have mutinied.

— During a stormy session of the French Chamber of Deputies on July 20, the Clemenceau ministry, by a vote of lack of confidence, was forced to resign. A new ministry has been formed under the leadership of M. Briand, a Socialist. It will be remembered that M. Briand was one of the leaders in the attack upon the Catholic Church which resulted in the dissolution of the concordat between France and the papacy.

— The report of the court-martial at Adana, Turkey, which was appointed to inquire into the massacre of Christians by Turks during the recent uprising in Turkey, states that fifteen persons have already been hanged; that 800 deserve death; that 15,000 deserve hard labor for life; and that 80,000 deserve minor sentences. It is not at all likely that sentence will be executed upon so vast a number. The court itself recommends that in view of the general reconciliation between the opposing elements, general amnesty be proclaimed.

— It having been America’s policy for so long to keep out of all entanglements with the nations of the other hemisphere, the German press is now commenting freely upon what it calls “the new course of America’s foreign policy.” The American government’s persistence in participating in the Chinese railway loan on terms identical with those of France, Germany, and England is described as a momentous indication of America’s determination forthwith to play an active rôle in the economic and political affairs of the far East, and to employ to that end the same political ways and means which the other powers have used.

— There is a constant increase of activity along the line of aeronautics. The successes of the Wright brothers in America and France and of numerous French aeronauts with heavier-than-air machines, and of Count Zeppelin and others with dirigible balloons, are leading many others to give attention to the navigation of the air. The first attempt to cross the English Channel in a flying-machine was made on July 19, and six miles of the twenty-two had been covered when the engine ceased working, and the machine alighted in the sea. The machine and its operator were rescued by a torpedo-boat. On July 25 another aviator, M. Bleriot, in an aeroplane succeeded in flying across the Channel, and won a $25,000 prize offered by the London Times.