The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-19 00:00:00

bardment of the town until full time has been
given to all strangers to leave it."

GREECE.

ATHENS, JULY 5.

There has been a change in the Greek Ministry.
M. Coumoundonros, the Minister of Finance, hay-
ing retired, the Ministry has been reformed as

!ollows

Miaoulis—Marine, President of the Council.
Botzaris—War.
Conduriotis—Foreign Affairs.
Potlis--Jastice and Public Worship.
Lycurgus Crestenites_lnterior.
Eustache Simos—Finances.
The Princes of Orleaw, Count de Paris and Due
de Chartres, arrived at Athens on theist of July;
they were received by the King and Queen ; the
King paid them a visit next day ; they paid a rapid
visit to the antiquities, and left on the Tuesday.

THE CHINESE EXPEDITION.

(From the Correspondent of the Daily News.)
HONG KONG, MAY 17.
The steamer from Galle, which arrived on the
9th, brought papers to 26th March from England,
and a few days later news by telegraph. The affairs
of Italy, which are engrossing all the public atten-
tion at home, excited a considerable interest even
here. We have learned by this mail the incorpora-

tion of the Italian Duchies into the kingdom of Sar-
einia, and the annexation of Savoy and Nice to

France.

What was of more consequence to us at

this jnnction, the mail did not bring Lord Elgin,
the great pacificator, as he is beginning to be called,
who, it is supposed, is coming to adjust all our dif-
ferences with the Celestials, and cheat us
out of the campaign we are anticipating.
Our preparations are now so far advanced that
whether the ambassador comes or net we
are not likely to wait long. With the ex-
ception of one battery of Armstrong guns, which
started from England to come out overland good-
ness knows how long ago, I think the troops have
all arrived. Indeed, it would appear that owing
to some misunderstanding between the Indian and
English Governments too many have been sent
out, and that, from the Ihdian Government not
knowing how many were going from other parts
of the world, or the home Goverment being mis-
or un-informed of the numbers going from India,
the force stipulated for in the agreement with the
French has been exceeded ; and the last mail from
Calcutta brought an order from Lord Canning to
send back a portion of the Native Contingent. In
consequence of this the 11th Punjaub Infantry has
been stopped and landed at Singapore, and the
Regiment of Loodeanah remains here to garrison
Kowloon. You must therefore strike out these two
from the statement of the expeditionary force I sent
you by last mail.
General Napier and staff left this on the 11th in
the Encounter, man-of-war, on a special mission.
He is going first to Chusan, then to Shanghai, and
bads to Pootoo, where arrangements are to be made
for establishing a depot for convalescents. 200 Eu-
ropean and 300 Native Infantry, with a portion of
the Madras Native Artillery, are to be stationed
there for the protection of the place. After finish-
ing his work at Pootoo the general will go on to the
Gulf of Petcheli, and make a reconnaissance, with
a view to find a favourable spot for landing the
army. Such at least is the camp gossip. His
instructions being secret, no one probably knows
anything about them except the chief of the staff.
The troops have been embarking in the trans-
ports all this week. The 31st and 44th Foot,
the 60th Rifles, Ist Royals, 3rd Buffs, the
Bth and 19th Punjaub Infantry, the Madras Artil-
lery and Sappers, and Barry's Armstrong Battery,
are all on board ship and ready to sail. The first
division will leave in a few days, and in a short
time Kowloon, so lately swarming with soldier life,
will be a desert, and the harbour of Hong Kong,
now crowded with shipping, will be tenanted by
only a few merchant vessels and a solitary man-
of-war. The embarkations have been effected
with great celerity and without any accident.
A floating pier has been constructed in the little
bay at Kowloon. This reaches far enough out
to admit of gunboats coming alongside. The
men are marched down to the shore, along the
pier and into the gunboat, which when full puffs
away with its living freight to the transport, leav-
ing another to take its place and bring off another
load. From another and smaller pier on the other
side of the bay the embarkations are made by men-
of-war's boats, and the native troops have a bay and
pier of their own, from which they are taken off to
their ships. In this way all confusion is avoided.
Each regiment is kept separate, the baggage does
not get mixed up together to the eternal confusion
of quartermasters and frenzy of its owners, and the
men proceed quietly and orderly to their respective
ships. All these arrangements are made by the
Quartermaster-General's department, and one or
other of its indefatigable officers superintends the
operations.
The commissariat difficulty which I mentioned in
a previous letter has at last been solved by the re-
turn to Calcutta a few days ago of the Bengal
officers. You are aware that when the China ex-
pedition was preparing to leave India, Lord Clyde,
who has had ample experience in the Crimea and in
India of the Imperial and Indian commissariat, and
has tested the merits and efficiency of each, sug-
gested to the Indian Government that an officer of
experience in the department, with a sufficient
staff, should be sent to China to co-operate with
and assist the Imperial commissariat, should their
services be required. The Indian Government,
approving of the suggestion, selected an officer of
great and varied experience who had been at the
head of the commissariat department that provided
for the wants of Lord Clyde's army in his Oude
campaign. Several other officers who had had
much practice in the "field, and had at different
times supplied the requirements of divisions of
an army, accompanied him, and all arrived
in Hong Kong with the commander-in-chief
of the expedition, or soon after him. Their arrival
was not at all welcome to the officers of the Impe-
rial commissariat. Naturally enough, they looked
upon them as interlopers. They had been deputed
to undertake the supply of the whole army : it was
their duty to do so. What would be said in Eng-
land when it was told that the department which
broke down in the Crimea had gained nothing by
past experience, and required assistance to minister
to so comparatively small a force as the China expe-
dition ? The obnoxious rivals must be got rid of.
In the meantime, however, they had arrived, and
were ordered to undertake the executive duties of
the native troops. It was proposed that the Indian
officers should remain exclusively under the control
of their senior, and that they should not be asso-
ciated with the officers of the Imperial department.
Indeed, it was not possible to assign relative rank
to the officers of the two branches, and make them
work together, for they differed in many respects.
The one hold commissions in the regiments to which
they belong; from which they are only temporarily
separated, and to which they can return at any time.
The others are commissioned only in their own de-
partment ; their mode of keeping accounts, of pro-
curing supplies, in fact their whole system is di-
verse, and therefore to have attempted to amalga-
mate the two would have produced nothing but
confusion and discord. At the same time it was
not possible that in the same army there could be two
distinct and independent branches of the same de-
partment. The Imperial Deputy-Commissioner-
General,who is controller of the expenditure of the
army, could not be held responsible for the outlay, if
another officer,not under his control,and rendering his
accounts to another government, was intrusted
with the supply of a portion of the force ; a spirit
of rivalry would have been engendered, and we
might have had the two commissariats in the
market bidding against each other for the same
stores, to the great detriment of the public purse.
Moreover, as the native troops have not brigaded
together, but been distributed throughout the force,
we should have had one set of officers providing
for the Europeans, and another set for the natives
in each division and in every brigade; in fact, a
double machinery which would have proved as
cumbrous as it would have been unnecessary.
These difficulties appeared so great that the order
for the Bengal commissariat officers to assume the
executive duties of the native portion of the force
remained a dead letter, and at the end of a mouth
it was clearly seen that some other arrangement
must be made. As I have stated, the two services
could not be amalgamated, and the difficulties of
the Bengal officers undertaking the charge of the
native troops were so great, and the relations into
which they would have been thrown with the Im-
perial branch so incongruous, tidnt the attempt
could not be made ; but it appeare that there was
still aa
plan byr which h i
acchicded
advantage
ab their great
ability
y
could. be
experience n
secured to the ex edition, without encroaching
upon
p
the responsibility of the Royal Deputy-Commissary
General on the one hand, or placing them in an
inferior position on the other.
It was proposed that some particular portion or
division of the army should be made over to them ;
that Captain Fitzgerald, the senior Bengal officer,
should have the entire control over and direction of
his own subordinate officers, but that he himself
should in his turn be subordinated to Mr. Turner,
the deputy commissary-general of the royal army,
who would thus continue to be supreme in the de-