The record-union., 1896-03-28

Desire.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 27.-The
following special correspondence of the
United Press, under date of Toxic,
March 18th, was received per steam
ship Coptic which arrived here to-
day:
document purporting to be trans
lation of a secret treaty concluded some
months ago between Russia and China
has been published in Shanghai 1t is
a strange and scarcely credible agree
ment
China, in consideration of the north
ern Powers good offices in backing her
bills upon France for a paltry sum,
which England would have supplied un-
conditionally, and in combining with
Germany and France to drive the Jap
anese out of Lao Tung, places any or
all of her harbors at Russia's disposal
for belligerent purposes, and also per-
lnits Russia to secretly raise levies, buy
horses and obtain coolies in Chinese
territory.
These various privileges, If chal-
1enged by another Power, are to be as
cribed to force majeure, China pretend
ing inability to oppose Russia's action.
the pleasure of openly attacking Rus
sia's enemies. should she so desire.
Further, when the Siberian railway
is finished, Russia is to be at liberty to
build a branch line to Talien, on the
northeast coast of the Gulf Of Pechili,
or to any other point she pleases, and
will be allowed to occupy and fortify
an island for the better protection of
~ Of al oh
tains leave TO select and intrench IA
vorable positions on the Chinese coast
opposite vladivostock, and to attack
Corea via Manchuria, should difficult
ties arise with Japan about the penin-
sula.
Per contra, Russia promises to use
persuasion, or force if necessary,
against any Power attacking China; to
lend several hundred officers for the
drilling of 100000 Chinese troops in
Manchuria, and subsequently in five
northern provinces of China, and to
hand over the branch railroad built to
her in Manchuria, should China, at the
end of fifteen years, have proved her
self competent to manage it.
The opinion of intelligent observers in
the East is that no such treaty can
have been concluded.
The state of affairs in Corea goes from
bad to worse. Politicians in Seoul in
sist that by taking refuge in the Rus
sian Legation and remaining there, the
King has virtually quilted his own do
mains, since the precincts of a legation
are extra-territorial. A similar view is
held by the leading citizens of the cap
dtaI who naturally see that very little
power of governing can be accredited
to a sovereign and his Cabinet so long
as they dare not venture beyond the
shadow of a foreign flag.
The insurgents in the province have
adopted a new tone, dictated, of course,
by the adherents of the Princes par
ents' party They say that the men
by whom the King was persuaded to
seek asylum in the Russian Legation
are traitors to the country, and must be
exterminated. But they also proclaim
that all foreigners must be expelled
from the kingdom-an announcement
probably intended as blind. They
have pushed to a point not more than
ten miles from Seoul, and the Govern
ment has no troops to cope with them.
The raising of several new battalions of
royal guards has been ordered by edict,
but money to pay them is not forth
coming, even if they could be organized
so speedily as to meet the emergency.
The whole situation, however, is rap
idly growing insupportabIe, and gen.
eral idea gains ground that the depart
1re of the King from the Russian Lega-
ton will be the signal for the downfall
of the present Cabinet. 1t has been
pretexted by the pro-Russian party
that the Kings residence in the palace
is out of the question. so long as Japan
ese troops have their barracks in the
Immediate vicinity. The troops were
located there originally by desire of
the Corean Government, but as the
Japanese authorities have neither need
nor occasion to keep them there, they
are about TO be removed.
The United States representative in
Seoul is winning golden opinions among
the japanese at this crisis. His infiu
ence. they report, is steadily exerted
in the cause of right and justice. Strong
and in great part successful efforts are
said to have been made by him to miti
gate the cruelties practiced by the Cab
met against its political opponents and
to lessen the brutalities resorted to by
the legal tribunals in their examina
tion of prisoners.
The Japanese Government has an
nounced another issue of the war loan,
amounting to 35,000,000 yen. Only ten
millions. however, are offered for pub
lie subscription, the remaining 10000
600 worth of bonds being taken by the
Bank of Japan The minimum selling
price of the bonds is to be their face
value. and the rate of interest D per
cent, as before.
Detailed accounts from kiangyia-
which lies midway between the mouth
of the Yangtze and Chingkiang-show
that mutiny on large scale among
the soldiers was only prevented by the
explosion of a magazine An insurrec-
ton was planned, the programme be-
ing to kill the General in command, get
possession of the magazines and rifles
and capture the city, foreign instructors
in the forts being sent away by boat
to Shanghai.
Already the work had commenced.
Rifles had begun to crack and the mutt
neers were removing. the contents of
the magazines when the principal of
these, containing about seven tons OF
gunpowder, blew up. The cause OF the
explosion is not known, since all In or
near the magazine-to the number of
about 300-were shattered to pieces.