FOREIGN | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 39.

FOREIGN.

—The State Department at Washington has received announcement of the death of U. S. Consul Gibson, of Beyrut, Syria, of smallpox.

—Private reports state that the number of persons killed in the disturbances in the interior of Armenia, two weeks ago, was not less than 5,000.

—In London, on the 21st ult., a large amount of cordite was discovered hidden in a hollow pillar of a house inhabited by Russian Hebrews suspected of Nihilism.

—A delegation of United States labor society representatives are now in Mexico studying the wage question and the cost of living. They report that every facility is being accorded them by the authorities.

—St. Petersburg advices state that United States capitalists are negotiating with the Russian Government for the establishment of a rapid steamship service between Vladivostok, the Siberian Pacific Coast port, and San Francisco.

—Archbishop Martinelli, the newly-appointed apostolic delegate to the United States, was to sail from Queenstown on the 27th ult., and will therefore arrive at his destination the latter part of this week. His headquarters will be at Washington, D. C.

—A Lima despatch, of the 23rd ult., says: “Advices received here from Cuzco, Peru, say that several days ago a mob was formed to attack the American missions in that city. The sub-prefect called out the troops, and after some work prevented the impending trouble.”

—An outbreak of bubonic plague is reported at Bombay; 800 victims had died up to the 24th ult. The bacillus of the disease is said to be identical with that which Professor Kitasato, the distinguished Japanese physician, discovered during the Hongkong visitation last year.

—The Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society is contemplating the establishment of leper asylums in India, expecting to receive government aid in the work. It is said that lepers can be seen almost everywhere in that country, and the care of them has become a very grave question.

—It is claimed that one of the Moody and Sankey hymns, which has been sung by the Christians of Armenia, is responsible for some of the Turkish hatred. When the Armenians sang, “Onward, Christian soldier, marching as to war,” the Turks interpreted that they were preparing for a crusade.

—A Constantinople despatch of the 24th ult. says: “The following fresh discoveries have been made in an Armenian church near the Ecole Centrale, at Galata: Three bottles of nitric acid, two bottles of sulphuric acid, fourteen bottles of glycerine, two vessels for the manufacture of explosives, some printing type, and some threatening letters.”

—The Russians are said to be displaying great activity in the northeastern part of China, and are placing the country in a condition for defense. Russian engineers have been busily at work at Port Arthur for weeks. That important place was left in a bad condition when the Japanese abandoned it at the close of the war with China; but the Russians are now placing everything in good order.

—Notwithstanding the fact that the Turkish Government has long been styled the “sick man of the east,” it is now conceded that it is stronger from a military standpoint than it has been in fifty years. Mr. Gladstone says: “For more than a year I have been puzzled over the diplomacy of six powers. They have been laid prostrate at its feet. There is no parallel in history to the humiliation they have so patiently borne.”

—Advices from Havana, by steamer to Key West, state that on the 21st ult. eighty-seven Spanish troops were surprised by insurgents, near Havana, and all but five were killed. These five had been seriously wounded, and left for dead; but they succeeded in returning to the city. The captain-general gave orders to the newspapers not to mention the affair, and the next morning a little revenge was had by executing five insurgent prisoners in the presence of 2,000 spectators.

—The effect of the Armenian troubles on the people of that nationality in Constantinople is thus expressed by a correspondent of a London journal: “The total Armenian population of Constantinople is, or rather was, 160,000, of whom about one-third were able-bodied males, a large proportion being unmarried men. Of these 53,000, about 4,000 have been massacred, 1,000 have disappeared, 4,000 have escaped by consular aid, and at least 20,000 have been deported by the state, so the male Armenian population of Constantinople is reduced by nearly three-fifths, from 53,000 to 24,000.”

—Of the insurrection against Spanish rule in the Philippine Islands, advices from Manila by steamer say that Cavite is occupied by 15,000 insurgents. Over one hundred monks have been murdered in the islands since the breaking out of the insurrection. Many of the victims have been fastened to trees, their clothing having been soaked with kerosene oil and ignited, and have been burned to death. Rich natives are being arrested daily. Documents have been seized by authorities in which are given the names of the President and various other officials of the proposed republic.

—This has been a season of disasters in Japan. A fire in the city of Kobe, August 26, destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of property. Just after this fire, severe storms destroyed 4,300 houses in the Gifu Prefecture, together with about 500 lives. In other provinces more than 2,500 lives were lost by floods, which were preceded by terrible earthquakes. At a later date, a regular series of earthquakes shook the country in the Rokugo district. Disasters were especially severe at Hatava, Senya, Takanashi, Yokohori, Yokozawa, Nagashida, Shimizu, and Fujiki. In some places the hills cracked, fires broke out in some places, and waters poured forth in others. At Rokugo, over 1,000 houses were overturned. All this in addition to the awful tidal wave, which, earlier in the season, deluged a large extent of country and destroyed some 30,000 lives.