FOREIGN by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 19, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 46.

FOREIGN.

By Editor

—A great Catholic congress of 3,000 delegates was opened at Lima, Peru, on the 9th inst., in presence of the papal delegate, Mgr. Macchi.

—Owing to a scarcity of breadstuffs in Nicaragua, President Zelaya has issued a decree admitting flour, corn, and lard free of duty until next April.

—The Cuban insurgents have captured the fortified town of Guayamaro, and the result is a command from Madrid to Captain-General Weyler to take the field in person.

—A despatch from Bombay says that in eleven districts of Deccan and Concan a million and a quarter people are believed to be on the verge of starvation. Riots have occurred at Shahabad and Kazod.

—The Boys' Brigade of California has been dissolved, and the companies which formed the organization, thirty-three in number, will join the United Boys' Brigade of America, headquarters at Chicago.

—The fine Mexican coasting steamer Mazatlan was wrecked in a fog off the coast of Mexico, between La Paz and Mazatlan, on the night of the 6th inst. There were thirty passengers aboard, but all reached shore safely. The steamer is reported a total loss.

—A Vienna despatch, alluding to Russia's efforts to secure trade in China, says that Russian silver rubles are being minted in large quantities for circulation in China, in view of the fact that Chinese confidence in the American silver dollar has been somewhat shaken.

—The London Times warns the United States Government of the difficulties it is likely to encounter in the pursuit of an active policy in regard to Cuba. The tender point with Great Britain is the fact that a large portion of the enormous debt of Spain on Cuban securities is held in London.

—A special despatch from Johannesburg says that the government of the Transvaal Republic has decided to put in a claim for £1,000,000 indemnity against the British Chartered South Africa Company, as one of the results of the raid of Dr. Jameson and his followers into the territory of the Transvaal.

—A St. Petersburg despatch says that Prince Obelenski, who is advocating the export of Russian cereals to India to relieve the famine, says Russia is oversupplied with cereals, and that it is estimated she could sell wheat at Bombay for 6d. per pood under the price that California wheat is realizing there.

—Advices received from Kaiserieh, Asia Minor, state that a band of Turks plundered the village of Everek, killing 100 Armenian inhabitants, setting fire to and destroying fifty houses. Not one of the Turkish marauders was killed. Kaiserieh, the advices state, has been thrown into a state of panic by the outrages.

—Late advices from the insurrection in the Philippine Islands report several engagements, with victories for the Spanish troops. One report states that the insurgents lost 400 killed in one battle, while the Spaniards lost but thirty-eight. Fifteen leaders in the revolt have been court-martialed and shot.

—A press correspondent says the Foreign Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia have declared in favor of recognizing the Cuban insurgents as belligerents. This would give them the privilege of purchasing supplies in Bolivia. If the government acts on this recommendation, it will be the first nation to tender this recognition.

—Advices from Havana, of the 8th inst., report an outrage upon an American named Craycroft, who came from Indiana, by Spanish soldiers. Craycroft was wounded and his wife assaulted; then the house was looted and over $600 taken, after which eight buildings on the estate were burned, and nineteen Cuban inmates were shot, including four women.

—It has been agreed, concerning the boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana, that Great Britain and the United States shall arbitrate the matter. The former government will appoint two arbitrators, the latter two, and jointly a fifth. The agreement is deemed a great victory for the United States. The St. James Gazette says: "Lord Salisbury's great admission of the principle that the United States has a right to intervene in frontier disputes of American powers and compel the disputants to arbitrate altogether transcends in importance the question of the Guiana boundary. It is a formal recognition of the control of the United States on the American Continent and gives the President a position in the New World which the medieval popes and emperors tried vainly to claim in Europe."

—In a recent speech at Enfield, England, Sir Charles Dilke, the well-known authority on international politics, said that England had recently rejected a proposal by the three great powers to partition China. He also said that the alleged recent inspection of the forts of the Dardanelles by a Russian general was by order of the Russian Government, and that, therefore, it was possible that Russia would regard a British attack on the Dardanelles as a casus belli.