p. 22 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 6, 1905

Current Mention

— Secretary-of-State John Hay died suddenly at his summer residence in New Hampshire in the early morning of July 1. Elihu Root, W. H. Taft, and Joseph H. Choate are mentioned as possibilities in determining the question of Secretary Hay's successor.

— The sinking of a Danish training ship by collision with a British steamship at Copenhagen, June 26, caused the drowning of twenty-two of the cadets on board. The same day thirty children were drowned in Lake Como, Italy, by an accident to an excursion party.

— An expenditure of $50,000,000 for the defense of India is called for by General Kitchener, commander of the military forces in that country. His plan of defense calls for an increase of the field army from 80,000 to 140,000 men, and a complete re-equipment of the Indian army in field artillery.

— A hurricane swept over a large district in central Italy, June 27, doing immense damage to crops, amounting to several millions of francs. The storm was accompanied by an unprecedented downfall of hail, which beat down everything before it. The government will take measures for the relief of the impoverished victims.

— The federal grand jury which has for several months been sitting in Chicago for the purpose of conducting an investigation of the beef trust, has returned indictments against seventeen men prominent in the beef-packing industry for violation of the Sherman anti-trust law, also against five corporations for the same offense, and against four officials for illegal rebating agreements with railways.

— The Cook County grand jury of Illinois has for a month been investigating the causes and conditions of the present teamsters' strike in Chicago, and has returned indictments against four men in connection with the brick trust, against thirteen men for conspiracy to injure the business of Montgomery, Ward & Co., and against thirty-two members of the teamsters' union and sympathizers with that organization for assault.

— Reports from Sweden indicate that the separation of Norway from the Scandinavian union will be acquiesced in by Sweden without bloodshed, though at sessions of the Swedish Riksdag where the subject has been considered, some very warlike speeches have been made. Norway's request to allow a prince of the house of Bernadotte to occupy the Norwegian throne has been refused by Sweden. The Swedish government is preparing a bill to serve as a basis for a settlement of the questions arising from the dissolution of the union. Both Sweden and Norway are reported to be secretly preparing for a crisis.

— One of the most significant facts of the times is the rapid growth of a national sentiment throughout China, of which there is indisputable evidence, and for which the Japanese victories over a great European power are supposed to be mainly responsible. This sentiment finds expression in the motto "Asia for the Asiatics." It is profoundly stirring the peoples of India, and in China it is expressed in an intense anti-American feeling, in view of the rigid Chinese exclusion law of the United States. The chief objection to this law on the part of the Chinese, however, is not its application to the United States, but to Hawaii and the Philippine Islands. Native Chinese papers refuse to print advertisements of American goods.

— Serious dissatisfaction is reported to exist among the Hindus of India with the British government as administered by the viceroy, Lord Curzon. Of the testimony on this point of a high-caste Hindu who has recently arrived in the United States, it is said: "He cites the fact that famine is now almost continuous; that pestilence is always raging; that the population has almost ceased to grow; that the British administration is doing virtually nothing for the industries of the country; that the taxes are increasing; that the cost of the durbar has been laid upon the people, and that the already overburdened population is now charged with the cost of the Tibet expedition, which, he avers, was undertaken by England solely as a political move for the protection of her Asiatic prestige. It is reported that a movement is on foot for a petition to the crown for a change of viceroys, and alongside of this, late dispatches indicate, runs a movement for the establishment of an Indian parliament."

— The revolutionary movement in Russia continues to spread, and such have been its developments that it has entirely eclipsed in interest the progress of the war in Manchuria. The latest feature of the revolt against the autocracy is its spread to the navy, where it occasioned a mutiny on the battle-ship “Kniaz Potemkine” of the Black Sea fleet, one of the newest and finest remaining ships of the Russian navy. The mutineers, whose chief complaint seemed to be about the quality of food served, seized and killed the officers of the ship, and then brought the latter into the harbor of Odessa with the red flag raised. Rioting soon began in the city, the rioters being emboldened by the presence of the battle-ship, the guns of which were trained on the city in token of hostility to the ruling authorities. Events soon led to a general combat throughout the city between troops and populace, in which the battle-ship participated, and it was reported that thousands of people had been killed, and other thousands injured, and millions of dollars' worth of shipping, warehouses, and other property in the city destroyed. Several smaller naval vessels joined with the battle-ship in the revolt, and the remaining ships of the Black Sea fleet were ordered to proceed to Odessa and sink the “Kniaz Potemkine” if she refused to surrender. Conflicting reports as to the surrender of the battle-ship's crew have been received. At Libau 5,000 sailors mutinied, and fought a pitched battle with troops in the woods near that city. A similar spirit was shown at Cronstadt. Martial law has been proclaimed at Sebastopol, Nicholaieff, Erivan, and some other places.