The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-10-28
FROM FOREIGN LANDS.
Interesting Topics That Engross the At
tentiOn of Europe.


decades has constituted the English
counterpart Of the American Naval
academy at Annapolis, and to transfer
the institution from which so many
prospective Nelson's have graduated to
a college on dry land, which is to be
erected at Mount Boone, above Dart
mouth. The college will occupy the
site of the mansion where Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, the discOverer Of Newfound-
land, was born, and which subsequent
ly belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh In
spite of the manifold advantages of the
change, the abandonment of the Bri-
tannia will be widely regretted. For
there is not at the present moment a
single commissioned officer in the Brit
ish navy who has not been graduated
from this famous old hulk.
In spite of the many assertions that
have been made about Gibraltar having
lost all its strategic importance by the
introduction of steam navigation and of
huge long distance ordnance, Great Brit
ain is quietly spending an enormous
sum of money in Transforming the rock
into a modern fortress England seems
at last to have realized the extent of the
power conferred upon her by the pos
session Of Gibraltar, and so many of the
older characteristics of the rock have
givcn"way to defenses of the most elab-
crate and modern order that people who
have not been there in several years
would scarcely know the place again.
Just at the present moment work is be-
ing hurried by means of day and night
relays on the construction of huge
protected harbor and dockyard
At last Sagaland is to be connected
with Europe by cable, the parliament
of Iceland having entered into con-
tract with telegraph company to lay
a submarine cable to Reikiavik from
Scotland by way of the Faroes. The
line will be of immense use from a me-
neurological point of view, for the north
Atlantic is great brewer of storms. It
may be recalled that at the time of the
construction of the first cable between
Europe and America it was proposed
that the line should run by way Of Ice
land, the geographical societies of Eng
land and France, as well as the British
government, being in favor Of the plan.
The scheme was only frustrated by Sir
William Thompson proving that mes
sages could be transmitted through
submarine cable 5000 miles long
The most important resolution of the
International Red Cross conference,
which has just been in session at Wen
ma, was one adopted on the motion of
the Russian delegate, Privy Councillor
Martens, insisting that every govern
ment should enact penalties for breaches
of the Geneva convention. At present.
although nearly every civilized country
has bound itself by a solemn treaty to
observe the rules and laws of the con-
vention, yet no state has as yet decreed
any penalties for the infraction of these
laws, which are consequently regarded
by many people as destined more for
theoretical than for practical observ-
ance. 1t is to remedy this state of affairs
that Professor Martens, the most emf
nent authority on international law in
Europe and one of the delegates of Rus
STA to the sealing conference at Wash
ington, has secured the vote from the
Red Cross society congress above de-
scribed.
The attention of the powerful Aborig-
ines Protection society in London has
been called to a new curse that is now
being forced upon the natives in South
Africa. Liquor Of the moss fiery and
poisonous description, specially distilled
for native consumption, has long con-
stituted a serious obstacle in the way of
those who desire to civilize the Kaffir
and is wrecking the dusky races Of
Africa, morally as well as physically.
Not content with this, the Europeans
have now initiated the black man to
the charms Of opium, the nefarious
traffic of which is carried on openly in
the Transvaal, where white people keep
dens i'll which Kaffir men and women
pay siXpence a smoke. The hideous
effects of the opium on the semisavage
Kaffirs who work at the mines are al
ready showing themselves in a very
marked degree, and the mine managers
are unanimous in declaring that the
curse is many times greater than that
of alcohol.
According to news received in Eu-
rope from Tokyo good deal of uneasi-
ness prevails in Japan with regard to
the general election, which is to take
place Immediately after the new year.
Lively times are expected, and the So
shi, or samurai, as the former two
sworded petty mobiles and their retain
ers are called, have already begun, as
usual, to advertise their services at the
usual fixed rates, their charges being
regulated according to whether a par
liamentary candidate merely wishes his
opponents annoyed and hustled or de-
sires their blood to be spilled. At the
last general election there were 20 peo-
pie killed around the hustings in the
Tochi Ken alone. Politics in Japan is
difficult to follow. Parties are in a neb-
ulous state, uniting, dividing and form
ing quite bewildering to the American
mind. In the seven years that have
elapsed since the last general election
there have been no less than 70 new
parties formed, most Of which have pri-