ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1189, 22 December 1883, Page 2

ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

The British Cabinet has issued explicit instructions to all departments that, in in the event of war, the British fleet in Chinese waters will be re'nforced, and it is said any attempt by France to blockade the ports where British interests exist will be resisted. The New York World editorially says there can be no doubt that the outbreak of a war in China would be a great calamity. It would affect not France and China alone, but all the Great trading nations, the United Stales included. Ameri can trade in Chinese waters is second in importance only to that of great Britain, and greatly in excess of that of France, The returns of 1881 and 1882 show that the annual import and export trade of China amounts to very nearly 500,000,000 dels, Of this the percentage of Great Britain, including Hong Kong,jis about 60, not far short of three-fourths of the whole. The percentage of the United -- -

States is 20 ' The cllima of France are . manifestly unjust. Iler action is highhanded and offensive Her interests in Chinese waters do notjiustify the attitude she has assumed. Cbiba, Dot France, has V the sympathy of all nations. 3! General Gourko, after reviewing 75,000 >' troops in Poland, severely commented on their inefficiency, and! emphasised the urgent necessity for important reforms. The Kussian Press attacks fiercely the enterprise undertaken by a mixed company of Americanj French and "Russian capitalists to establish grain elevators throughout the Empire.; The projectors have a capital of 75,000,000 roubles at their back, but the Press i 8 jealous of the . enterprise because it is.in a measure foreign.. The first number of the Socialist paper, Will of the People, printed abroad, reached St. Petersburg on November 2nd. It contained a letter from the Nihilist prisoner, Netschapiff, to the Czar. Netschapiff was condemned ten years ago and wassupposed to be dead. He has written a complaint of his terrible treatment. The journal adds that the letter was originally written in blood. It has' created great excitement among the Nihilists of St. Petersburg. The late Nihilist proclamation demands that the Czar summon the representatives of the people ; asks for a. full amnesty, freedom of freedom of speech, and the right to hold public meetings, as the only means' of preventing revolution. i It is rumored that Princess Amelia, the -J eldest daughter of jthe Comte de Paris, \ will shortly be married to the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. The Czar's advisers favor the union, thinking it will facilitate the restoration of the Orleanists and alliance between France and Russia. The Standard's St Petersburg correspondent speaks of jthe Nihilists fis badly demoralised and miserably weakened as to men and means. HThe recent arrest of Vera Phihpert, the actual head of the Executive Committee, is the worst blow of all. She has written a voluminous confession.