Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 13, 1909

— The first wireless message ever transmitted between Chicago and New York was received at the latter place on May 2 from the manager of the United Wireless Telegraph Company in Chicago.

— Mr. Oscar S. Straus, former Secretary of Commerce and Labor, has been appointed by President Taft to the position of ambassador to Turkey. Mr. Straus has held this position before, giving the utmost satisfaction.

— Diplomatic relations between the United States and Venezuela, which were broken off more than a year ago, were resumed on May 4, when Señor Don Pedro Rojas, the new minister from Venezuela, was presented to President Taft by Secretary Knox.

— Extensive plans are being drawn up for a mimic war between the American fleet and the forts of the Atlantic coast. The work planned for the fleet will be the technical capture of some of the fortified ports. The forts are supposed to prevent the capture, but none save the officers of the fleet will know which ports are to be “captured.”

— Lassa, the capital of Tibet, so long forbidden to foreigners and foreign influence of every kind, appears to be assuming a less rigid and illiberal spirit. A Calcutta newspaper states that a commission from that city has received from a large convent in Lassa an order for numerous objects of European manufacture, including one hundred brass musical instruments.

— It is felt throughout France that a crisis is rapidly approaching in the relations between the government and the trades-unions. The result of the last encounter between the government and the unions is regarded as a victory for the unions, and the government seems to feel much chagrined over the outcome, and is preparing now to take a firm stand against the unions. On the other hand the members of the various unions are preparing to resist any move of the government calculated to interfere with their purposes.

— The recent display of military strength and aggressiveness by Austria and Germany has caused Russia to greatly modify her plans of defense. That portion of her territory known as Poland, which projects as a sort of wedge between German and Austrian territory, and would be exposed on three sides to the attacks of these powers in case of war, is to have all its fortifications abandoned, dismantled, and destroyed. In case of war, mobilization of troops would be carried on behind a chain of fortifications nearer on a line with Russia’s ancient frontier.

— A report from Evansville, Ind., states that a young man of that city has invented a very powerful explosive, which he is able to set off by means of a wireless apparatus operated at a distance from the explosive. A small quantity of this explosive, located in the top of a tree three miles from Evansville, was set off by this apparatus operated in the city. It is stated that the blast of three ounces at that distance shook the city. Such an invention as this in the hands of irresponsible parties or the maliciously inclined can not be contemplated without grave concern, and its destructive possibilities in military operations is readily conceded.

— On May 2 the garrison of marines at Constantinople refused to embark for distribution to various ports to which they had been assigned, and acquiesced only when General Schefket planted batteries commanding the barracks, and gave them the choice of obedience or death. On the following day thirteen civilians and officers implicated in the uprising were hanged in Constantinople. Documentary evidence has been found which shows that the massacres in Asia Minor were planned at Constantinople. Uncensored reports state that many of the Armenian villages have been entirely wiped out, the inhabitants having been either killed or driven out and the buildings reduced to ashes. Great misery is reported from all the affected districts. In some places the survivors of the massacres are living on grass. The arrival of the constitutional troops is putting an end to the massacres, but they can not do much to relieve the terrible conditions prevalent. The secret vault of the deposed sultan has been found in the Yildiz palace. It is reported to contain $2,500,000 in gold and $5,000,000 in negotiable securities. It has also been discovered that the sultan has deposited in Germany, France, England, and the United States upward of $15,000,000. The new government has taken possession of the gold and securities found in the sultan’s palace, but has not yet decided upon what course it will pursue with reference to the deposits made in foreign countries.