The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-12
Kept Busy Trying to Prevent Other
Powers Getting Ahead i'm the Ter
INCORPORATING business.
INDIAN CAMPAIGN COSTLY
35,OOO,OOO RUPEES SPENT AND THE
TRIBEsMEN NOT YET CONQUERED.
Nothing to Show for the Money, the
Loss of 400 Men and the Wane OF
Prestige--GeneraI Foreign News.
copyright, 1897, by the Associated press)

Copyright, 1897 by the Associated Press)
LONDON, Dec. 1L-Four Cabinet councils
in week are calculated to arouse comment,
but it must be admitted that the Marquis of
Salisbury and his colleagues have a multi
plicity of matters more or less urgently call
ing for a settlement. With France trying
to fitch slices of African territory which
Great Britain is in the habit of calling her
own, and Germany loosening the ''cnch" AL
bion has always claimed to have in China,
while Great Britain herself is trying to grab
a little more country at various other
points, and with the preparation of the leg
islative programme, the Ministry has no
lack of worries.
The announcement which the st. James
Gazette made on Wednesday last "authori-
tatively," that the British government does
not expect any further trouble with France
regarding the upper Nile regions, France
agreeing to accept the situation, is uncon-
drmed, and probably unfounded, as there is
no lack of evidence that France is deliber-
ately pursuing the task OF seizing the upper
waters of the Nile, above Khartoum, thus
cutting the British line of communication
between Cape Town and Suez, and the pow
erful colonial party in Frarce threatens to
upset the Meline Cabinet should it recede
from this enterprise.
All the forces Oh CeHeFdl SlF NllHdHl
Lockhart, the British commander on the
Indian frontier, have been withdrawn to
the Bara valley for the winter. Thus the
largest and best-equipped force ever as
sembled in India has fallen, and the whole
work will have to be repeated in the spring.
About fourteen hundred officers and men
killed and wounded, S5,O0O,OOO rupees spent,
and British prestige weakened on the
frontier, are the debts against which few
mud huts and sangars blown up, and, prob
ably, several thousand natives killed, are
the only apparent credits.
Rumors too precise to be guess work are
current to the effect that the Earl of Elgin
early next year will retire from the vice
royalty of India and be succeeded by Lord
George Hamilton whose Indian secretary
ship will be filled by Lord Landsdowne, the
present secretary of state for war. This
would be a good party move, as it would
enable the Marquis of Salisbury to place at
the head of the War Office a skilled man of
business who would satisfy the taxpayer as
well as the army and materially smooth
the path for the intended proposals for mill
tary reform 1t is intimated that Joseph
Chamberlain may be transferred from the
Colonial to the War Office, his place being
given as a sop to the Marquis of London
preciated by the Ministry
A dispatch from Picking says THE Ger
Inan-Chinese difficulty is practically set
tied. The Germans refuse to discuss the
occupation of Kiaochau bay. The Governor
of Shan-Tung province has been removed
from office, but will not be any further de-
graded. No monopoly of mines and rail-
roads is conceded. to. Germany, but that
coulftry is given preference. Finally, the
area Immediately surrounding Kiaochau
bay is set apart exclusively for Germany
China yields all other points"
1t was semi-ofhcially announced at Berlin
yesterday that the report that Germany
would evacuate Kiaochau bay for coaling
station in the Sam-Sah inlet was unfounded.
On the other hand, 1t is stated that Prince
Henry of Prussia, who has been appointed
to the command Of the esecond German
squadron on the coast of China, will visit
Picking, where the Chinese Emperor will
receive him as an equal, an unusual honor
Prince Henry, it is announced, is the bear
er of a message from Emperor William to
tho Chirese Emperor in which is included
a progra Inme of Chinese REFORMS.