CABLE NEWS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 170, 30 June 1884, Page 2

CABLE NEWS.

[Reuter’s Telegrams.] WAR RESUMED BETWEEN FRENCH AND CHINESE. GLADSTONE THREATENS HOUSE OF LORDS. HOUSE OF COMMONS. THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC. THE EGYPTIAN CONFERENCE, Hong Kong, June 27. Latest news from Tonquin states that further fighting has taken place between the French and Chinese at Langson, on the frontier, the Chinese being again the aggressors. Accounts received here show the attack was made on the French position at Langson, by a large body of Chinese, and heavy fighting ensued, with varying success to the combatants. The assaults of the Chinese were renewed at intervals during two days, and hostilities proceeded for the whole of that time, neither side gaining any decisive advantage. The loss sustained by the French is set down at 10 killed and 32 wounded. The Chinese loss is not known, but is believed to have been heavy. Ten thousand Chinese are reported to be in the vicinity of Langson, and further fighting is expected to take place during the next few days. London, June 27. It is announced that the British Government have decided, after further consideration, not to ratify the treaty which was agreed upon in February last, with Portugal, providing for the appointment of an AngloPortugese Commission to regulate trade with navigation of Congo river, West Africa. In the House of Commons last night, before the Bill for reforming the fianchise had been finally passed, Mr. Gladstone made a speech, in which he took occasion to warn the House of Lords that the rejection of the measure in that chamber could only be attended with the gravest results to the nation. June 28. At the annual dinner of the Cobden Club this evening, Sir Henry Parkes, ex-Premier of New South Wales, in responding to the toast of the Colonies, said that legislation in the Colonies would never take a direction hostile to the interests of the mother country. In the House of Commons to-day, Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, announced that Government intended to propose to the Powers the appointment of a mixed Inter-colonial Commission to decide the questions which have arisen in connection with the Congo river and the adjoining country. The commission to be appointed on the same basis as that which sat to regulate the question of the Navigation of the Danube, and will supersede the existing Anglo-Portuguese Commission.

The European Conference on Egyptian affairs, held its first sitting to-day. Berlin, June 27. The prorogation of the Reichstag took place yesterday. The discussion on the subsidy for the establishment of a line of mail steamers to Australia has been shelved, but will be introduced next session. Paris, June 28. News to hand from Marseilles states that cholera has made made its appearance there, and several deaths have already occurred. Latest advices from Toulon state that the mortality from the epidemic there is now averaging six cases daily. It is probable that the projected fete in that city, on the 14th July, to celebrate the anniversary of the French Revolution, will be postponed, as it is feared infection may be spread by the congregation of masses of people from various parts of the country, especially from those where cholera prevails. The French Government has ordered vigorous preparations to be made with the object of resuming hostilities against the Chinese in Tonquin,