Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 27, 1905

— France and Germany have reached an agreement regarding Morocco on the principle of the “open door.”

— A general railway strike was begun in Italy April 16. A regular but reduced service is kept up on the roads by the use of military engineers, and the railway stations are guarded by troops.

— A recent dispatch from St. Petersburg says that the Jews of Kishinef and other towns of South Russia are hastily leaving their homes in fear of what may happen during the coming celebration of the Russian Easter. There is great fear of further massacres.

— By a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court, Indians to whom land has been allotted by the government are no longer to be regarded as wards of the nation, but as citizens of the United States, with all the rights and responsibilities of other citizens.

— The assassin of the Russian Grand Duke Sergius, Ivan Kolaieff, by name, was tried before the Senate and Kremlin law courts in Moscow, April 18, and sentenced to death. The prisoner was unmoved at the sentence, and manifested no regret over the commission of his crime.

— A strike of porcelain workers is in progress in the city of Limoges, France, which has been marked by rioting and collisions with the troops. The strikers built barricades in the streets, and in one conflict with the troops were fired on by the latter, two men being killed and several wounded.

— The French Chamber of Deputies has adopted by a large majority Article 1 of the bill providing for the separation of church and state, which reads: “The republic assures liberty of conscience and guarantees the free exercise of religion, the only restrictions being those in the interest of public order.”

— A part of the initiation ceremony performed at a Knights of Pythias lodge at Felsenthal, Ark., April 10, upon Ebenezer Runyan, consisted in firing a blank cartridge at him with a revolver. The cartridge happened to be loaded, and Runyan dropped dead with a bullet in his brain. At the colleges this practise of “hazing” is frowned upon and prohibited by the authorities.

— An army plot against the government has been uncovered in Spain. A Madrid dispatch says: “Two officers of the garrison of Barcelona are under arrest, charged with conspiring against the state. It is said that they had secured the adherence of the army to their plot, with several prominent generals. The arrest of a number of Republican leaders who are said to be implicated is imminent.”

— Rome is strengthening her hold and extending her influence at the national capital by the removal to Washington of the order of the Oblate Fathers, an educational organization which has figured in this country from early times, and controls a number of institutions of learning in the United States and Canada. Fifteen acres of land adjoining the site of the Catholic University have been purchased, on which will be erected a “house of studies” for advanced theological students, and a building for novitiates.

— Reports from the Balkans state that a condition of anarchy exists there, characterized by general fighting on the part of all nationalities. A dispatch says: “In Zagoricham, province of Koritsa, early this month Greeks fell upon and killed more than 130 Bulgarians, and in Kumanova, province of Uskub, Turks have killed several Servians. Thus it is seen that all nationalities and Christians and Mohammedans continue fighting one another, while Turkey seems unable or not desirous of affording protection to the people and stopping the disorders.”

— The West Indian volcanoes, Mont Pelee and La Soufriere, which broke into eruption with such appalling results in 1902, are again, according to reports, showing ominous signs of renewed activity. A lake in the crater of La Soufriere has begun to boil for the first time since the last eruption, and people in the vicinity are warned by clouds of steam seen arising from its surface. It is believed that the unstable condition of these volcanoes may account for the shocks and heat which have been felt of late on the islands of St. Christopher, Dominico, and Antigua, and at Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadalupe.

— The Russo-Japanese conflict has assumed a new phase the past week by reason of an alleged breach of neutrality on the part of France, in allowing the Russian Baltic fleet to remain in Kamranh Bay, in French Indo-China, and to make use of that port as a base of operations against neutral shipping in that vicinity. The arrival of a third fleet, which Russia is sending to the far East, is expected shortly, and it seemed to be Admiral Rozhdestvensky’s plan to remain in this French port until he could effect a junction with this third Russian squadron, which would give him a decided preponderance of force over Admiral Togo. Japan entered a strong protest against this attitude on the part of France, and there was talk of her calling on Great Britain to come to her support, in accordance with the terms of the alliance between the two nations, which binds the former to assist Japan in case the latter finds herself opposed by two powers. It is expected, however, that France will take care to avoid giving just cause for such action on England’s part, which would at once precipitate world-wide war. It is reported that Admiral Togo has planted mines in the channels which the Russian fleet will naturally take in going north toward Vladivostock, and will await the latter in the vicinity of Japanese territory. The latest report is that Admiral Rozhdestvensky has left Kamranh Bay by order of the czar, at the earnest solicitation of the French government. Reports from the armies in Manchuria indicate that the Japanese are making a movement northeastward with a view of cutting communication between Harbin and Vladivostock, and thus isolating the latter port, which in the event of a victory by Admiral Togo will become the next objective point of the Japanese operations.