ADDITIONAL SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2720, 10 June 1885, Page 2

ADDITIONAL SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

Admiral Cosnakoff, in command of the Russian Mediterranean Squadron, received orders on April 14, at Naples, to proceed forthwith to the Baltic, with all the vessels of his squadron. General Komaroff reported officially on the 6th April, from Dash-Kepri: “ The remainder of the Afghan detachment has fled to Herat, Its loss was much greater than had been at first stated, many dying from cold and hunger. Rain and snow had been falling for twelve days. The camp evacuated by Sir P. Lumsden at Bala Murghab has been burnt by the Afghans. Camels, with provisions, baggage, and part of the English convoy, were driven away by the Sariks, To prevent anarchy a temporary administration is being organised in Penjdeh. A detachment remains at Dash-Kepri. A forward movement at present is not necessary.” The Temps has reason to believe that the Russian representative on the Suez Canal Commission has been instructed to inquire whether England maintains the restrictions made by Lord Beaconstield at the Berlin Congress in 1878. when he declared that England regarded the closing of the Dardanelles, not as a European engagement, but simply as an understanding with the Sultan. Russia will also ask whether England intends to apply the same theory to the Suez Canal. The British Naval authoiilies are confident that they will be able to deal rapidly and effectually with the three or four fast cruisers which Russia possesses, should they attempt to put to sea. The only arm of naval waifare in which Russia is at all formidable is torpedoes, of which it is said she has seventy in the Baltic. It is said that the papers found in Ayonb Khan’s rooms confirm unmistakeably the suspicions of his complicity in Anti-English intrigues in Heiat, which led to his arrest. He was arrested at Teheran, on April 11, and removed to the Citadel, in consequence of the discovery of correspondence relating to arrangements for his intended escape, and is closely confined there. The Persian authorities have taken possession of his house. The Russian authorities are using all their influence to obtain his release. The insurrection against (lie Mahdi iu Kordotan is reponed to lie headed by Abdel Hamad Walad Essalia, and to be spreading widely. The Mahdi

himself has gone to the scene of hostilities leaving an emit’ to govern Khartoum and the district. Setly Osman, near Kassala, is said to have written to the Mahdi, “ I have sixty thousand men, and will march against you if you continue to disturb the country.” When the Arabs were quiet, at the British camp near Handoub there was grouse shooting, and at the base of operations at Suakin cricket matches, races, and sports were got up, and as a relief to the tedium of inaction, a race meeting, organised by the Indian Contingent, was held recently on the harbour shore. The programme consisted of horse, mule, and camel races, and steeplechases. The band of the 28th Native Infantry played. One of the steeplechases was one by Captain Airey, of the New South Wales Contingent, while the prize for the camel race, which excited the most amusement, was carried off by a Soudan negro on a Commissariat camel. The General was present, and Osman Digna only was wanting to complete the harmony of the pooceedings. The Lord Mayor of London (the Right Hon. George Swan Nottage) expired somewhat suddenly at the Mansion House on Saturday morning, April 11. His Lordship, it appears, caught cold at the Brighton Volunteer Review on Easter Monday, and although he contrived, with a great effort, to distribute the gifts to the Bluecoat Boys on the following day, he was unable to attend the Spital service. The sad event cast a gloom over the whole city. A special meeting of the Court of Aldermen was held, when it was announced that the last time a Lord Mayor died during office was as far back as 1770. Alderman Fowler, M.P., was elected to fill the remainder of the term caused by the death of Lord Mayor Nottage, Admiral of the fleet Sir George Rose Sartorins died on April 13th, in his 95th year. He entered the Navy in 1801, and took part in the Battle of Trafalgar. By the death of the Earl of Selkirk at his seat in Kirkcudbright on Satturday, April 11th, the title becomes extinct. Herr Walther von Goethe, the last lineal descendant of Goethe, died at Leipzig on the 15th of April. A meeting of the family and the clan of Gordon was held on April 10th, in Aberdeen, in view of a memorial in Scotland to the late General Gordon. A resolution, moved by the Earl of Aberdeen, approving such a memorial, was adopted, and the appointment of a Committee was decided on. A new and formidable ironclad, the largest that has yet been constructed for the French navy, was successfully launched on April 16th, at Lorient.