CHINA AND JAPAN

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1735, 11 September 1879, Page 3

CHINA AND JAPAN

[By Tblegbaph.] [PBBSS AGENCY COBBESPOITDENT.] SHANGHAI, July 8. General Grant left China for Japan. He was well received by the Chinese authorities at Teintsin and Pekin. He was much pleased with his visit. Movements in Japan will be much interfered with on account of the cholera which has broken out there. _ Very unsatisfactory accounts continue to be received from the North of China, and it is feared that there will be another famine.

A Oheefoo correspondent, writing a few days ago, and who had recently travelled through Shensi, says that cannibalism was fearfully prevalent there last year, and that people spoke freely about it, but it was not now practised. The s.s. Shunlee, which left Shanghai several days ago for Northern ports, has been wrecked. She went ashore during a fog. Sir Thomas Wade, British Minister to Pekin, and suite were on board at the time. No lives were lost, and the natives on shore treated all in the kindest manner. Only a portion of the cargo was saved. The Shunlee was a new boat, having lately been built at Home for the China Coast Steam Navigation Company. The manner in which vessels are commanded and piloted from this port is just now exciting great attention. Competition for the carrying trade in China is getting very close. For some time back the several companies hive been running under agreements with each other, but these have now been put an end to. New steamers have been built or purchased for the trade, and freights are reduced by about half. The outbreak of cholera in Japan is very serious. Kohe and the neighbouring towns suffered most. A telegram was received from Shanghai yesterday, stating that 300 people had died in the place named above a few days ago. The Japanese authorities are enforcing quarantine regulations. A lively discussion is going on here amongst the foreign doctors as to the cause and nature of cholera, and opinion is divided as to whether the contagion is transmitted by the water or the atmosphere or in some other way. An angry feeling exists between China and Japan respecting the sovereignty of the Loo Choo Islands. A rupture has been confidently predicted. Ido not think matters have gone so far yet, but China has recently placed her coast defences in the hands of one of the ablest mandarins, and it looks as though she were preparing for emergencies. A Native prospectus has just been issued for a coal mining company to begin operations in Hupeki. It does not manifest any desire to oust the foreigners, as Native official enterprizes usually do. On the contrary, arrangements are to be made for the necessary foreign help. Such undertakings cannot fail to quicken the public spirit of the empire, and as the district is rich in minerals, there seems no reason why the company should not prove a success. It is evident that China is " movng." A Chinaman claims to have discovered a new kind of steam boat to be impelled by steam generated without the use of fire. The Native officials have been commanded by the Imperial Government to aid the inventor with money, and to report upon the result. HONG KONG, July 18th.

It is said there are in this city at the present time some fifty odd miscreants called by the Chinese " kan kang," or pirates, who, armed with revolvers and other weapons, are prepared to carry out any crime, however heinous. They carry on a fraudulent gambling house, and generally lead a predatory lite. News has been received in China that the province of Hi has been restored by the Russians to the Chinese Government. Instructions have been given that the Paku forts are to fire a salute when the British Minister passes on his way to Pekin. It is stated as probable that the Chinese Government will give its sanction to the laying of the trans-Pacific telegraphio cable, to conneot China and the far east with the Pacific states of America. The Chinese Government has paid to the Spanish authorities the sum of 18,000dols. indemnity for pillage of the Spanish Soberana, wrecked on the coast of Formosa in 1862. A torpedo explosion occurred the other day at Nankin arsenal while a public exhibition was being held. One man was killed, and a number badly wounded.

Famine again threatens the unhappy province of Shantung, owing to the wheat crop having entirely failed. SHANGHAI, July 13. The Viceroy Ti has just concluded a large contract for torpedo material with a foreign firm, amounting to 60,000d015. The troops, 5000 in number, stationed at Nankin, are to be armed with Martini-Henry rifles. A torpedo boat is ordered from England, capable of steaming seventeen miles an hour. She is expectod in an early steamer. An order for four gunboats of the Alpha and Beta class has also been given with instructions to htsten the completion of the order.

The foundations of a now cotton-spinning mill are being laid here. The first of a new line of steamers for traffic on the river Yang-Tze, was launched at Shanghai on the 21st June. She is owned by Messrs Jardine, Mathieson and Co.