BRITISH AND FOREIGN. LONDON, February 25.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 26

BRITISH AND FOREIGN. LONDON, February 25.

Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman is pTogressfag favourably, though, slowly. During a debate in the House of Lords Lord' Fitzmaurice (Under-secretaTy for Foreign Affairs) declared that the Congo Government's attitude wa-s^ more uncompromising than before. In the House of Commons Mr Winston Churchill stated that the average mortality among the Chinese on the Rand was '6 per 1000, and that of the Nyassaland aatives employed in the Premier mine ",00 per 1000. February 26. Mr J. M. Barrie, Mr Pinero, and Sir W. S. Gilbert* and many other dramatists, waited on Mr H. Gladstone asking aim to appoint a court of arbitrators to whom to appeal against the decision of the censor on plays. Mr Gladstone said that personally he was sympathetic, and pTomised to consult Sir H. Campbell-Banner-man. Great Britain demands a monetary indemnity from the Liberian Government for the deaths of Messrs Ditchfield and Blenkinsop, two English traders at Cape Palmas, which were due to foul play oni the part of Liberians. Lord Cromer, speaking at the Society of Arts, sp.id that in the next 15 or 20 years £20,000,000 might very advantageously be spent in irrigation in Egypt and the Soudan. February 27. The King personally presented the Edward medal to Chandler, a Yorkshire miner, and Evexson, a Welsh miner, for ! conspicuous gallantry in rescuing life. The ship Castle Rock, from Sydney to Seattle, U.S.A., is overdue, and is now uninsurable. She is considered lost. Sir Francis Burdett was mulcted in £5000 damages as co-respondent in a divorce case and for seducing Mrs Boyd, the respondent. * I " • February 28. j It is reported that- the examining magistrate- ia..Paris has evidence that a jeweller, furnished Lemoine with the fusible plugs that were used in connection with* the j crucibles to conceal the real diamonds.. | On Monday King Edward starts on a fieit to PaTis and Biarritz, lasting for five weeks. The Agents-general suggest that since the cos! would be £1400" to engage the ' King's Colonial B.uid for the FrancoBritish Exhibition, it would be better for \be Australian Governments "to subsidise &c Boulder Band to. thai, .extent, trust-

ing to the public to provide the additional cost' of their visiting London. The engagement of 38 Chinese firemen and seamen on a steamship in the West India Dock led to a meeting under the auspices of the National Seamen and Firemen's Union vigorously protesting, and urging the Government to prevent the wholesale importation of Chinese into British ships at reduced ■wages. March 1. The American Lawn Tennis Association forwards a challenge for the Davis Cup, the match to be played in September. Its team is at present not chosen. The creation of the Swaziland police force has been gazetted. Mr Wallace,' the magistrate at Clerkenwell Court, quashed the Battersea Borough Council's 3d rate for relief works for the unemployed, on the ground that it was an infringement of the act of 1905, limiting such rate to id. PARIS, February 26. The French Senate unanimously sanctioned the participation of the Government services in the forthcoming Franco-British Exhibition. February 28. It is semi-officially announced that M. Augagneur, the Governor of Madagascar, is absolutely opposed to the engagement of Malagasy natives for the Rand mines. ' March 1. A fire in a block of warehouses at Marseilles, belonging to the Chamber of Commerce, covered an area of 10,000 metres. The damage amounts to several million francs. BERNE, March 2. The displacement of air caused by an avalanche destroyed a Swiss hotel in the village of Goppenstein, killing 12 people and injuring 15. BERLIN, February 28. | Count Ernest Reventlyon, the German naval expert, states that Great Britain is j building only one Dreadnought in 1908, because it is an entirely new type of battleship, not an experimenting eihip like the first Dreadnought. - THE HAGUE, February 27. . While Prince Henry was driving in a phaeton with Queen Wilhelmina at The Hague the wheel caught in a tramway line \ and an electric car collided with' the vehicle in the rear, and smashed the ' phaeton. The wheels of the phaeton, tilted, but neither of the occupants waa injured. MADRID, February 28. King Alfonso and the Premier propose to visit Barcelona shortly, in order tip demonstrate that there is no political danger.

The visit is regarded as highly imprudent. ST. PETERSBURG, February 27. The captain of the Russian cruiser Askold at Vladivostock, who was about to be court-martialled for his attitude towards the mutineers in October last, has committed suicide. March 1. It is semi-officially announced here that the Government is spending three millions sterling annually for the next few years towards the rebuilding of the fleet. NEW YORK, February 26. President Roosevelt touched a button at Washington and inaugurated the first pair of Hudson River tunnels between Manhattan Island and New Jersey. These are the forerunners of others at an aggregate cost of £60,000,000. , ■ February 27. Professor Lowell, of Harvard, claims that his spectroscope reveals the presence of water vapour in the mass in the atmosphere. The Port Au Prince correspondent of the Central News reports that someone stoned the British aide-de-camp when he was quitting President Alexis's residence. On the President refusing to give satis-, faction, the captain of the cruiser Indefatigable brought his guns to bear on the President's residence. An apology was immediately forthcoming. March 1. Congress has authorised Mr Elihu Root, Chief Secretary of State, to invite foreign Governments to send delegates to a conference on tuberculosis to be held in September. SAN FRANCISCO, February 29. An explosion in the Monterey Steel Company's mine ait Sabinas killed 70 persons. OTTAWA, February 26. Mr Bryce ((British Ambassador to the United States) $ in receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws at the Maigill University, Montreal, referred to the colonials' success at Oxford, and emphasised what wo iM be gained if British students came toi Canada and Australia. February 28. The Royal Commission at Ottawa finds thast the collapse of the Quebec bridge was due to a defect in design — namely, lack tf proper provision for the maximum strain on the central span, which was too great for the supporting members. DURBAN, February 25. Mr Keir Hardie addressed a crowded meeting in the Town Hall at BloemfonJeinj, and was cordially received.