The Washington times., 1901-10-05
FOREIGN TOPICS.


causing the Government considerable
thought. 1t will similarly provide much
food for Parliament, which opens in about
fortnight. In the meantime several
and it is hoped that If these do not alto,
gether absorb the surplus labor they will
at least minimize the trouble.
The mercantile marine of Japan has
been wonderfully developed since the war
with China. Before the war uS9D Japan
had but 400 steamers. and with two ex-
ceptions they were all under 5000 tons.
most of them being coasters under 500
tons; but with the need of transports to
convey troops there came an immediate
increase of nearly 10000 tons. which with
the first year of the war continued to in
crease until the total was 263. 600 tons. The
next year there were S31, 900 tons. 1he
policy of subsidies was adopted, beginning
with 1885 with the result OF making 10
tai of 500 ships, representing han MI,
lion tons The sailing craft has increased
in a still larger ratio than the steam
ships. The material of the boats mas also
changed in character, the wooden craft
decreasing and those OF steel ana IRON III
creasing In 1899 Japan had 800 ships OF
wood. 116 of steel. and 123 of iron. japan az
now has $50 steamers of more thah i,VV
tons, and over twenty-six of more IMAM
5000 tons.
The article from the pen of the most
competent authority in France,@ Whlch
recently appeared in lie Matin,' has
been responded to. by NJ Camille Pelle-
tan, reporter of the budget of the French
Ministry of Marine. NJ. PeIletan, after
making 1t clear that he doubts the word
of the distinguished writer in lie Ma
tim or at least deems him the victim of
an Illusion says that the difficulty of ma
neuvring in time of war the submarines
of the present type would be that the
ships attacked would not offer themselves
as targets as did the battleships against
which the Gustave Zede had recently
been directed with so much precision. He
then says:
THAT a submarine should plunge be-
meath the surface of the water, and that
it should then be able to discharge a
torpedo does not prove very much. There
is no vessel of this description, however
indifferent it may be. which does not ac-
complish as much. The whole question is
to know its navigable. seagoing, and ma
neuvring qualities. If the Gustave Zede.
therefore, In or near a harbor, torpedoed
an iron-clad, that, l repeat, proves moth
ing. The unfortunate thing is that II does
not appear to have accomplished even
that on the occasion referred to, for all
efforts to find the torpedo have failed,
and 1t is thus permissible to suppose that
it missed its mark. i do not think that
the submarine effect its submersion and
make for the Bouvet. The foremost quail
ity of a submarine, sits special guarantee
of security, isithat of being invisible.
The Gustave Zede will speedily have to
be laid up If she betrays her presence so
clumsily; but i have not much difficulty
in reassuring myself AT the most the
Gustave Zede could only have been seen
when. instead of the vessel being nine
feet below the surface, her optic tube, and
probably even her cupola, were emerging
above the water, an operation which is
necessary for the discharge of the torpedo
in the desired direction"
The operations of the savings bank de-
partment of the British postoffice should
be warning enough against this Govern
ment undertaking anything of the kind.
At the close of the year there was de-
ficiency of o.20s $40 in the assets as COM
pared with the liabilities in the savings
bank branch Of the, postoffice. That was
caused largely by the decline in the value
of Government securities known as7con-
soils, in which the savings funds are in
vested. There was also deficit of 81, 1885,,
OS0 in the operation of the telegraph
branch of the postoffice. That deficit
was all the more surprising because there
was general election during the year,
war was in progress, and the Queen died.
all of which events tend to increase the
number of telegraph messages. But there
was decline of IA per cent in stock eX-
change kilograms and I'll per cent in
London business taken as a whole. There
was a decline of 965. .521 in the ordinary in
land kilograms. as compared with the pre-
ceding years. But on the postal business
proper there was a surplus of Sl9653, 1856,
sufficient TO make up for losses on any
branch Of IT.
Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, re-
Gently delivered speech on the educa-
tional system of that country that might
have a new interest to us now that we
have systems of education to manage for
foreign people He thought the work of
the last twenty years in India in this
way had been remarkable, but that
mistake had been made in too slavish
imitation of English models. He did not
believe in examinations as being the sole
test of education. They had bad effects
on both teachers and pupils; and Indian
education, he declared, must be freed
therefrom. He thought, moreover, that
the Government had not done its duty
in primary education. He urged technical
education, by the creation of middle-class
technical Schools He declared further
more his belief that 1t was not the part
of Government TO teach foreign re-
ligiOn in its schools. He doubted if the
moral precepts that We understand were
easily grasped by the native mind. The
ideas OF good and evil are equally enter
tanned by the East and the West. but they
are differently expressed and we must he
thought look for religious instruction
to private institutions where the tenets of
various faiths are taught by their Vo-
taries.
The humorous legend which makes the
Sultan Abdul Hamid a distant kinsman
of Napoleon III is not without some
foundation. The relationship, 1t is said,
comes through the Empress Josephine,
and, according to apparently authentic
documents, In the following manner: A
certain Mile. De Rlvry, born in I766, was
captured in 1888 by pirates as she was on
her way to Martinique to join her family.
The young and beautiful captive was the
first cousin of Mile. Tascher de la Pagerie
the future Empress Josephine, whose
er of Napoleon Ill. When taken to Con-
stantinople she became the favorite sui
tana of Abdul Hamid I. who died in 1879,
the issue of this union being Mahmoud
IL, who reigned till-1S39
The present Suitan.l being the son of Abb
dul Medjd, whose father was Mahmoud
II, Is therefore the .great-grandson of
the Empress Josephne's first cousin. AL
though constrained by her position to
join the Mohammedan faith, the sultana
when on her death bed, persuaded her son
Mahmoud to allow monk from the Holy
Land to enter the fYildiz X josk Palace
secretly and to reconcile her with the
Church. o. %
An influential Indian native paper, the
'Kaiser-i-Hind,r makes the striking and
truly imperial PROPOSAL that King Ed
ward should go to India next winter to
be crowned emperor at Delhi. 1t declares
that the determination of his Majesty TO
achieve the distinction of being the first
European monarch to be crowned in that
city, which has been immortalized by at
ar~a nff AtGtor