Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 14, 1905

— The settlement of the present difficulty between the powers and Turkey regarding Macedonia appears in sight, the powers having consented to some modifications in their demands, mainly as a concession to the sultan’s pride.

— Herr Bebel, socialist leader in the German Reichstag, created a commotion in that body by a speech December 7, assailing the government’s foreign policy, and declaring that present conditions in Russia were a warning of what might come in other European countries. The German laboring population, he declared, were being profoundly stirred by the Russian revolutionary spirit.

— Japan has entered upon a program of naval expansion which provides for the building of larger, faster, and more heavily armed and armored battle-ships than any now existing in any navy. An immense gun factory, with twenty large buildings, covering eighty-three acres, is being established near Tokyo, by the Japanese military authorities, where 4,000 men will be employed making heavy ordnance.

— Reports from Cuba say it is probable that the United States will soon be called to interfere with the affairs of that country to save it from bankruptcy. “A weak and extravagant government, a hungry and swarming ‘army of liberation,’ and rapacious American and foreign money sharks, using questionable, if not corrupt, methods in saddling debts upon Cuba, are the elements whose combined operations, if continued, will result in intervention by the United States.”

— Trouble is reported to be looming up between Germany and Brazil on account of the action of the German cruiser “Panther” recently in landing men on Brazilian territory and seizing a man who was accused of having deserted from the German ship. The incident will become serious if Germany refuses to make an apology. It is considered possible that the United States, whose relations with Germany are greatly strained, may be drawn into the controversy.

— Secretary-of-the-Navy Bonaparte has created a great stir in patriotic circles by a proposition to destroy the old United States frigate “Constitution” by making it a target for the guns of ships of the modern navy. More than any other ship that was ever built, the “Constitution” reflects credit on the American navy, and as such ranks with Nelson’s ship, the “Victory,” which he commanded at Trafalgar and which is to-day a carefully treasured relic in the British navy. A mass-meeting held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, December 9, gave voice to the protest against the secretary’s purpose. Wittingly or unwittingly Mr. Bonaparte has revealed the Roman Catholic attitude toward the sentiment which glories in the early history of the American republic.

— The final step was taken in the divorce of church and state in France, December 6. A Paris dispatch under that date says: “The Senate to-day, after a long debate, adopted the bill for the separation of church and state by the vote of 181 against 102. This is the final parliamentary stage of the bill, which will be promulgated in the Official Journal to-morrow, when it will become effective immediately. The council of state will devote three months to the framing of the administrative details of the new regime.”

— A recent London dispatch states that “in an important appeal in behalf of the oppressed Jews in Russia, signed by Lord Rothschild, Sir Samuel Montagu, and a number of other leaders of the Jewish movement in Great Britain, the admission is made that for the bulk of the Russian Jews there is no hope of salvation except through a new regime of liberty and justice, when they will receive equal rights with their fellow citizens of every creed.” The appeal opposes the Zionist movement and all other colonization schemes, which could benefit only a comparatively small number of Jews, of whom there are 4,000,000 in Russia.

— Captain A. C. Baker, of the United States navy, who has for several months been making a study of commercial and political conditions in China, has returned to this country with a gloomy prophecy regarding American trade relations with China, as affected by the Chinese boycott. The boycott against American goods, he declares, is not dying out, and Australia and Japan are fast getting the trade in flour, cotton, and steel that belonged to the United States. Commerce in Southern China, he says, is under the absolute control of the guilds, of which there are seventy-one. The guilds have given orders that American goods are not to be handled. This is contrary to the rights secured by treaty, but no means is apparent for making the treaty effective in this particular.

— While but little is known, comparatively, of conditions in the interior of Russia, all the news that finds its way to the outside world indicates that a second French Revolution is in progress, marked by anarchy, riot, and massacre. The revolt among the troops seems to be steadily growing, and confidence that Premier Witte will be able to make head against the popular storm is fast waning. There is a report of a massacre at Kieff in which 1,500 persons were killed. According to reports from refugees, 8,000 persons were killed at Odessa. The strike in the mail and telegraph service continues. Famine and distress are general, and the better class of people are fleeing from the country. General Sakharoff, former minister of war, was assassinated by a woman in the governor’s palace at Saratoff, December 5. A German squadron is reported to be in readiness near St. Petersburg to afford a refuge to the czar in case he should be obliged to flee for safety. The revolutionists have begun an attack on the financial credit of the government, hoping to drive it into bankruptcy.