News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 42.

News and Notes

By Editor

FOREIGN.

—It has been announced that Spain will send 5,000 more troops to Cuba before the close of October.

—A bill has passed the Senate of Peru which provides for the legalizing of non-Catholic marriages. It is expected to become a law.

—The king of Korea has proclaimed his nation an empire, giving himself the title of emperor, thus declaring his independence of the suzerainty of China.

—A collision on the Canadian Pacific Railway near Stittsville, Ontario, on October 14, between a freight and express train, resulted in the death of four men.

—Two squadrons of native British lancers were surprised by members of the Hill tribes near Bara, India, on October 18, losing fifteen men and twenty-seven horses killed.

—The English Government has formally expressed to United States Ambassador Hay its refusal to join in the monetary conference proposed, or to reopen the silver mints of India.

—A report from India states that the cholera has attacked a battalion of the Shropshire regiment, and that forty non-commissioned officers and privates have already succumbed.

—The Belgian Antarctic expedition which sailed from Antwerp on July 25 and was to have called at South American ports, has not been heard from, and fears are entertained of the safety of that expedition.

—The striking engineers of England have prepared a manifesto to American newspapers and labor organizations appealing for money to enable them to keep from yielding to the demands of their employers.

—After ten months of Protestant work in England, Scotland, and Ireland, Father Chiniquy, the ex-Romish priest, is returning to America. He is nearly eighty-nine years old, but is still waging vigorous warfare against Catholicism.

—Lieutenant Henry, of the Kongo Free State, in a pitched battle with the mutinous native Manyema soldiers near Lake Albert Nyanza, killed 400 of their number, and the rest are reported to have fled to the mountains, where they are starving.

—The attempt of the king of Siam while in Europe to create sufficient influence in behalf of his country to enable him to free himself from the position of a French vassal has been unsuccessful, none of the powers being willing to give more than their moral support to his petition for independence.

—The historic town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, was almost entirely destroyed by fire on October 17, the fire raging so fiercely that the fire department was absolutely powerless to contend with it. Over 3,000 persons were rendered shelterless by the conflagration. The pecuniary loss is estimated at $3,000,000.

—It is now denied that the revolutionary leaders of Guatemala have fled from the country. Their inactivity is said to be a part of a plan entered into between themselves and Leon del Castillo by which the government forces are to be outwitted and defeated. Castillo is marching toward the capital from the east.

—Primo de Rivera, the Spanish captain-general of the Philippines, has been making overtures to the rebels to induce them to lay down their arms. The rebels have replied to these overtures, demanding extensive amnesty to begin with, and a full pardon eventually, as they desire to take no chances in submitting to Spanish authority.

—The government of Portugal has instructed its representative in Honolulu to interpose no objection to the proposed absorption of the islands by the United States. A committee representing 16,000 resident Portuguese in the islands presented Senator John T. Morgan with a draft of resolutions favoring annexation to the United States.

—A severe and hotly contested battle was fought between the English forces and the insurgent tribesmen in the hills of the Samana range near Fort Lockhart, India, on October 20. The tribesmen were repulsed, but not until after they had inflicted serious losses on the British, scores of whom were killed and wounded in carrying the insurgent position.

—A terrible shipwreck occurred off the northwest coast of Cuba on the morning of October 16. The Spanish ship Triton, with about 150 passengers on board, struck a rock in a heavy rain-storm and sank in 120 fathoms of water. Some were saved by swimming ashore, and others were rescued by tugboats; but it is estimated that not less than 150 were drowned.

—A correspondent writing from Korea states that there is no doubt but what Russia and Japan are preparing for war. Russia is securing coaling stations along the coast, has 100,000 soldiers concentrated near Vladivostok, and has secured a controlling influence in Korean affairs, while Japan is surveying the Korean coast, strengthening her garrisons and her fighting force.

—It is reported that General Weyler has refused to give over authority as captain-general of Cuba to his duly appointed successor, Castellanos, although peremptorily ordered to do so by the Spanish premier. Weyler demanded that his successor should sign a statement to the effect that the four western provinces of Cuba had been pacified. This Castellanos refused to do, knowing the true condition of affairs in those provinces.

—It is reported that at the town of Los Palacios, Cuba, 5,000 persons have died of starvation between May and October 1st. Over three thousand of the starving pacificos of Matanzas City, after vainly petitioning the governor for food, made a concerted attack on the food stores of the garrison, overpowered the guard, and succeeded in sacking the markets. They were then attacked by the militia, and over one hundred men, women, and children were shot down or macheted.

—Rev. J. L. Bruce, in speaking of the condition of the people of Brazil, says: "The intellectual, physical, moral, and religious condition of this people is sad. In Brazil as a whole eighty-five per cent. are illiterate." For a description of the morals of this Catholic country he refers to the first chapter of Romans, and further says: "Religiously, we have to declare and continue to declare to the people that a Christian and a libertine, a Christian and a robber, a Christian and a liar, are incompatible things. The priests have not learned this, and a large part of the people have never had an idea that they were not good Christians if they subjected themselves to the church and the priests, even though their lives may be corrupt beyond description."