Beyond the Dominion

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 213, 2 December 1909, Page 4

Beyond the Dominion

Tlil'. PANAMA i'ANAL. Tlie totai cost of the I';.L;>:ial, including .-tc-rLnjr for actual cost of construction. N cnich-.lly estimated at To million, which is ii'' percent, above the original estimate. There is a growing feeling in America against the lock system. LOAN AND MERCANTILE COMPANY. London, November 26. After paying debenture interest, and adding £550,00 to the reserve account, the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency, Ltd., has a credit balance of £6730. A dividend of 5 per cent has been declared, and £360 carried forward. FRENCH NAVAL PROGRAMME. Paris, November 26. France is commencing two 23,000 ton Dreadnoughts, with a speed of twenty knots, in 1910. They will have the greatest attacking power and will be heavily armoured and divided into compartments so as to secure as great a measure of invulnerability as is possible. GERMANY'S FOREIGN POLICY. London, November 27. Count BernstorfF, recently Councillor and First Secretary to the German Embassy in London, and now German Ambassador to America, in recent speeches at Washington, deprecated the use of war scare language. The speeches have attracted attention in Berlin, where it is assumed that Count BernstorfF reflects the policy of Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, the new Chancellor, which is a departure from the methods of Prince von Buelow,the late Chancellor. As Prince von Buelow's policy caused irritation in neighbouring states by encouraging the PanGermans, Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg desires to repudiate all connection with the Pan-Germans, and the "Standard" states that be has converted the Kaiser to his view.

KING EDWARD TO ARBITRATE. London, November 28. King Edward has been asked to arbitrate between Chili and the United States on a long standing dispute. Washington refused to refer the dispute to the Hague Arbitration Tribunal although Chili deposited £20,000 awaiting the result. LORD KITCHENER'S TOUR. Hongkong, November 27. Lord Kitchener, who is to visit Australia and New Zealand at the invitation of the Australian Commonwealth and New Zealand Governments, to report on the state of the defence force and assist in the reconstruction scheme agreed upon at the Defence Conference, has sailed for Australia on board the P. and O. liner Assaya.

A TERRIBLE CYCLONE. Perth, November 29. News has been received by cable that a cyclone yesterday practically devastated the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company's station was partially wrecked. The operating room was flooded, and all the other buildings were blown away. RIVAL NAVIES. London, November 29. Sir John C-. Bigham, speaking at the Liverpool Shipbrokers' Benevolent Society's dinner on Saturday evening, made some references to the naval situation.

When the warship tonnage now on the stocks was afloat, he said, Britain would be represented by 2,000, 000 tons, Germany by 820,000 tons, and the United States by 785,000 tons. In the next few years the British increase would be 15 per cent., and the German 20 per cent. "Germans have assured us," he continued, "that Germany has no intention of attacking us. We need an enormous navy; Germany does not, and I am unable to find any explanation for her great navy except that it is to be held in reserve for future use and for a use not agreeable to us. "Germany is making herself very strong in the North Sea and in the Baltic, and —I belieye af? Germany's instance—Austria-Hungary is strengthening herself in the Mediterranean. We should therefore spare no pains or money in keeping our fleet up to the mark. If we do so we shall live in peace."

THE GERMAN DREADNOUGHTS. Berlin, November 29. The Thueringen, the third of the German "Super-Dreadnoughts," was launched at tbe Weser Yards, Bremen, on Saturday. THE CONGO CRUELTIES. London, November 29. The "Times" special correspondent at Brussels quotes M. Catatier, Vandervelde, and other Belgian leaders in the long agitation against the old Congo system as declaring that the Leopoldian regime is really dead. They claim that the reform.- introduced by M. Renkin, Minister for the Colonies, are, on the whole, reasonable and satisfactory, and, above ail, practicable. They also state that there has been already a vast improvement in the spirit of the whole Congo administration. SUBDIVIDING AFRICA. Berlin, November til l . Renter's Berlin Agency reports that Britain and Germany recently considered various questions concerning the frontiers between British r<rar.da ami German East Africa, and bc-lw-.en those colonies and th< Cor.go. Considerable anxiety is no'/.', it is stated, inanif'in certain quarters agreement where'iy it is rc.;orto-l Britain riceivc.- the ortcro district in exchange certain other tn'rnery. Several of the iJ■- r::n nc-'.vsnan-rs summon Hern L'crr.burg. Gorman C'-i----oniai Secretary, to state tne tacts, A SHOCKING CRIME. Lieut. Hori-h.t r has U-on arrested in Vienna en -usjdcicn of being concerned in the recent a'tempt to poison Austria!; staff officers by cysrr.dc- sent through the post.