Omaha daily bee., 1903-05-30
OTHER LANDS THAN OURS.

HAAA@. y - - a@NN NhAA
since King EDWARDS visit TO the French
capital. such prominent members Of the
French Senate as Messrs. Waldeck-Rous-
seau. Magnin, Decrais and Baron de Cour-
eel have given In their adhesion to the par
llamentary group whose object II Is TO pro-
mote International arbitration. This group,
which has representatives in both cham
bers, is said to be anxious 10 establish re-
latonship with a similar group OF British
legislators at Westminster IL would be
difficult to exaggerate the political import
ance OF n cordial cooperation between two!
such bodies In any case In which one ma
ton felt itself aggrieved by the other. The
Baron de Courcel, one of the French dele
gates at The Hague conference, lie one Of
the most earnest and active promoters Of
this scheme. The correspondent remarks
that it. is not difficult to understand why
the Foreign offices of the great powers fire.
quently exhibit an unwiIlingness to refer
questions to The Hague tribunal. such a
reference amounting almost to an admission
OF their own uselessness. or at least of the
supernuity Of much OF the red tape with
which negotiations are now ~entangled.
zee
The abnormal number OF parties and
groups destroy alt very keen interest in
the coming elections of members Of. the
Reichstag. In the last session there were
but s97 members, and only one party, the
c~lerlcals, boosted OF a representation of 100.
The strength Of the various factions was
about as follows: Clericals, los; conserva-
tives Qncluding % free conservatives), 70;
social democrats, S.: national liberals. 81;
radical left, "a Qncluding I South German
representatives.; unattached, &c; moderate
radicals, Ia; Poles, IL; anti-Semites. 10. and
representatives Of Alsace-Lorra1ne, 10. TIL
agrarians have already begun a house
toulouse canvass and the social democrats
are prophesying great gains for their group,
which prophecies are likely to be fulfilled.
The last Reichstag did not greatly dis
tlnguish itself. It passed a new army bill
and the very important navy bill. The task
of reforming the imperial finances and OBJ
Waiting the recurrence of serious deficits
was evaded The workingmen's insurance
laws were revised, steps were taken toward
controlling child labor. many laws dealing
with hygiene were passed and the great
civil code for the empire was sanctioned.
Should the worst happen in Albania, COM
petent experts assert that the fighting
strength of the Albanians, the staying
power Of the people, has been greatly UNI
derestimated. Not only are they a nation
Of born fighters that can put in the field
at short notice from $1,000 to 10000 men.
but slight success would augment this force
easily to 100000. 1t Is not a fact that they
have no money. According to those that
know the country, among the Albanians
there are no poor and the mobiles are nearly
all of them very rich. Moreover. the coun-
try is self-supporting in the matter Of for
age and supplies. Turkey has the advan-
tage of a regular army which is wen or
ganized, but the country will be a most
difficult one to fight in. In the military
district of which Albania Is a part the
standing army consists of IA battalions of
infantry with a total of 115,000 men, together
with a division of cavalry of 5000 men,
forty-eight batteries of artillery of six guns
each, ten mountain and six howitzer bat
teries, also of six guns each. This is the
force now at hand for subduing the Alban-
ians, preserving order among the Mace
domains AID watching some 100 miles of
Bulgarian frontier. For operations against
the Albanians alone there are now at hand
seventy-two\ battalians of infantry of 800
men each, sixteen batteries and about 1000
cavalry. AT least thirty Of the -battaltons
and ten of the batteries are needed for
garrison duty, leaving only about 32,OO in
fantry and six batteries for field service
should, occasion for such service arise.
However, Turkey of late has been bringing
over a good many troops from Asia and
will doubtless continue to do SO.
zee
The Emperor William has won golden
opinions from all classes in Rome by a
simple act of courtesy, which shows that
he knows his Rome we'll. Italians, and es-
pecially Romans, have a kind OF cult for
Queen Margherita Her beauty, her mis-
fortunes and now her simple life as Queen
dowager have made her sacred to them.
The kaiser, to show his appreciation of her
qualities and his respect for the widow of
his firm friend, Humbert, went personally
in state, escorted by cuirassiers, and left
his card on all her ladies In waiting. Many
are known to him. others are not, but the
cards were left without distinction. No
sovereign going to Rome has ever done
such a thing, and 1t has produced quite a
sensation. The ladies are the Princess We
nosa, a Tuscan, who has made herself
known by her love for flowers, her house
being always a bower; Princess DORA, who
is a sister of the duke of Newcastle;
Princess Sonnino, who exercises a fascina-
ton on everyone who approaches her, and
the duchess of Sermoaeta, who is also an
E-ngllshwoman, nee Wilbraham. Queen
HeIena's ladies are said to be rather jealous
OF the distinction conferred upon those of
Queen Margherita, as there is a species or
rivalry between the two groups, which their
mistresses have not been able to disguise.
The arrangements which are being made
by the French Ministry OF Marine at Brest
for the most extraordinary naval test OF
modern times are as follows: Early in
June one Of the turrets of the battleship
Sunren is TO be fired at by a gun Of
Massena. The idea is not to see whether
the plates can be penetrated. but whether
the turret will remain in working order
after the impact. The shot will be sent
at a distance OF 400 meters, or 4S6 yards,
and will be fired from one of the new
twelve-inch guns. During the experiment
the men OF Suffren will remain at the
batteries, as In an actual engagement,
while the officers will take up positions
best calculated TO give them observations
on the results Of the shot. Suffren IS
a turret barbette ship OF 1862 tons dis
placement and was launched in 1899.
According 70 the oficial Messenger OF
st. Petersburg, more than 100000 Russian
peasants have migrated from European
Russia 10 Siberia In the last ten years,
and of this number 10000 have settled on
land belonging to the state. Since January