MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, 5 February 1902, Page 1

MAIL NEWS.

(Per R.M.S. Ventura at Auckland.) LONDON, Jail. 11. The British War Office has been confronted with a most serious condition of alTairs. Its calls for volunteers ;c relieve regiments at the iron,, have thus far received absolutely no response. This has served to intensify the widespread indignation existing in all volunteer regiments. In the first place the volunteers answering calls would only receive a shilling a day, while the Yeomanry, in which many volunteers have already enlisted, receive five shillings. The only solution of the deadiock appears to be for the War Office to introduce conscription, or to withdraw the new regulations. These have stirred up strife which

has not existed for many years between the Government officials and the voluntary arm of the service. According to high officials, it will bankrupt a major sty o the regiments. According to the new rules, every regiment must go into camp for one week in each year. The Government grant is reduced in proportion to the number of absentees in each company of volunteers.. The commanders say it is impossible to get more than forty per cent of the men together in the same week, so different are the occupations of the men. In addition, the War Office refuses to recognise drills which arc not attended by a per centage of men which it had been found quite impossible to obtain, and impose battalion parades of such strength that no drill ball nor ground in London is large enough to enable the battallions to manoeuvre.. Among those who condemn the new regulations is Colonei Balfour, brother of the Cabinet Minister, who commands the London Scots. The matter will be brought to the attention of Parliament if the order ol War Secretary Brodrick is not amended. The volunteer force, so the colonel of one of the strongest London regiments says, will dwindle to nothing. Meantime the War Office ‘is waiting anxiously for an answer to the call for troops for service in South Africa. PEKIN, Jan. 7. The arrival of the Imperial Court at the Forbidden City was the most brilliant scene Pekin has ever witnessed. The procession consisted of one thousand gorgeously-attired noblemen, all mounted on horses superbly caparisoned. Thu Emperor, the Empress Dowager,- Prir.ee Hun, the Empress, and several princesses were borne in yellow chairs, arm had an escort carrying gay banneis and umbrellas.

The foreign community assembled at the top of tiie Ching Gate. The Einpeicr and Empress entered the temple by the gate and burned incense. The Don agei-Empress, upon emerging from the, temple, saw the foreigners peering down, and bowed. A double row of soldiers, kneeling, lined for a mile the rente. The cortege was a bewildering barbaric exhibition of Oriental splendor. Its chier s gr.ificance was the complete effacemeiit of the traditional deification oi Chinese Royalty. The fori:ignore were given greater facilities of wuncssiug the ceremonial than would have been afforded at most of the European courts. The scene from the Piling Gnte was nothing else than revolutionary, viewed in the light of Chinese ostoins. The horse-shoe wall

forming rhe gate was erowdea with European diplomatists, army officers, missionaries, ladies, photographers, and correspondents. ‘Alien the Emperor and Empress arrived at the temple the procession l halted. Their majesties alighted from their "sable lined chairs. The Emperor proceeded to the Temule of the God of War with hundreds of foreiners watching only forty feet above him. Dozens of cameras were focussed upoii the Son of Heaven. The Dow-ager-Empress bowed low, and repeatedly. The expression of the DowagerEmpress seemed almost appealing as she faced those who had humbled her and brought her down from her former arrogance. This confirmed the belief that she returned to Pekin with anxiety for her own safety. Although the streets along the line of march from the railway station were kept closed to the people, thousands of natives assembled on the elevations along me line of march, a thing never before permitted. The soldiers of the American garrison witnessed the spectacle from their parade ground opposite the entrance to the Palace. The British officers and the entire garrison were kept m quarters. A majority of the foreign Ministers absented themselves. PEKIN, Jan. 14. The hrst week of rehabilitation of the Chinese Court has been a season of intense interest to all classes ot Chinese and foreigners. That the Em-press-Dowager governs as absolutely before the attempt to crush pr gross, and recognises that foreign jntertjus and opinions must be respectedi wo lowers are gaining ascendancy in the Counnl cl the Dowager. The first is Yuan Sni Kai, a to the extent oi appreciating the power of the foreign nations and the necessity for Chinas adoption of in struments, by which that strength shall be attained. The second power is Yung Lu, Imperial Treasurer. Most influential among the advisers of Emnress, and. V.ttcrly hostile t cigners he is temporarily impressed with the necessity of conciliating them. Yuen din Kai, Governor ot Chili Province, having trom ten to twelve thous And of the best troops m and about the capital, is a personag the Empress-Dowager must gon^r. Tt has nob yet appeared that me mSteZSSn \«• cwrt “'K than skin-deep, All the ord methods of intrigue art corruption, of favors, and bribery to . ences have been resumed with vigor indicating that officialdom is trying to make up for lost time.