JAPAN PREPARING FOR WAR

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 30 March 1901, Page 4

JAPAN PREPARING FOR WAR

The Corean Crisi3

News by the Mail.

(per tress association.)

(Per San Francisco Mail at Auckland.) The latest news from Pekin has led the State Department to the conviction that dilliculties will be encountered in arriving at an agreement between the Foreign Ministers, respecting the amount of indemnity to be levied upon the Chinese Government and the methods of collecting it. The United Slates Commissioner is doing all he can to restrain the demands of the Powers to a sum which will be within the reach of the Chinese Government, without the destruction of the dynasty and the upheval that would result in the loss of much territory to China.

The encroachments of Russia in Manchuria arc a serious complication also, and particularly irritating to Japan. Mail advices from that country show that Japan is hurrying on preparations for war at all her arsenals aud ship yards. Russia's attitude in Corca, where her soldiers ha-ve appeared, and the planting of the Russian flag on the Inland of Hantoa, at the mouth of the Tumen River, have given an impetus to Japan's preparations.

[This is probably the explanation of the recent cables, which spoke of the " Corean crisis," the nature of which had not previously been cabled out. One of the last messages was to the effect that the crisis had been averted. Another denied the report that Japan despatched warships to make a naval demonstration on tho coast of Corca.]