p. 22 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 15, 1906

Current Mention

— The French cabinet headed by Premier Rouvier, has resigned, having met an unexpected defeat in a vote taken March 7. The cause of the defeat was the opposition to the forcible taking of inventories of church property.

— A Peking dispatch says: “The Chinese government is greatly perturbed by the reports of anti-foreign movements printed in the American and European press, and particularly by the dispatches announcing America’s preparations for a military expedition in case of need. The principal topic in the Chinese press relates to the reports coming from America that the United States is making complete preparations to send a military expedition to China. The newspapers regard these reports as a manifestation of an unfriendly policy.”

— A mining catastrophe of incalculable horror and magnitude has stricken the great coal center of northern France. An explosion of fire-damp, Saturday morning, carried death and destruction throughout the network of coal-mines centered at Courriere, and fire followed the explosion, making rescue difficult and almost impossible. The intense excitement and confusion prevented early estimates of the exact loss of life, but a dispatch says the number of entombed men is given at 1,219. A crowd of 25,000 persons surrounded the pit’s mouth.

— An imperial ukase was published by the czar March 6, relating to the character and powers of the new national assembly. The representative government which it outlines for Russia has little in common with popular government as known in the United States. The assembly will have two houses, the superior one of which, corresponding to the United States Senate, will be composed of members appointed by the czar or elected from the nobility. All members of the assembly must take an oath of fidelity to “emperor, autocrat, and holy Russia,” which debars anarchists and revolutionists. The czar is not bound to consider any measure which is not passed by both houses, and the assembly will be convened and prorogued by the emperor. It is subject to dissolution by imperial ukase. Between sittings of the assembly the czar retains the power to promulgate “temporary” laws. “The most significant provision of the ukase,” it is stated, “is one retaining certain provisions of an existing law, which is mentioned only by number. This innocent-looking provision is far reaching, placing beyond the jurisdiction of the parliament and consigning to existing commissions of the council of the empire, composed solely of members appointed by the crown, for consideration, the following: (1) Reports of the minister of finance upon the state of the treasury; (2) charges of malfeasance against members of the council of the empire, ministers, governors-general, and commanders-in-chief of land or sea forces; (3) the establishment of stock companies with special privileges; (4) questions relating to entailed estates, titles of nobility, etc.”