Omaha daily bee., 1908-02-15
OTHER LANDS THAN OURS.

novelist, in a letter to the editor Of the
New York Evening Post, appeals to lovers
Of liberty and Christianity throughout the
world to enter an indignant protest against
the spolistlon Of the people OF Prussian
Poland Of property rights, language and
racial Identity proposed by the government
of Prussia. The government measure In
troduced in the Prussisn Diet by Count
Won Buelow has for its object forcible
Germanization of Poland by taking over
the lands of the natives, who perslstently
refuse to sell. and selling the confiscated
lands to Germans selected by the Prussian
government. The drastic features Of the
measures have been somewhat modified by
the requirement demanded by members Of
the Diet, namely, that confiscation be lin
-ited to certain districts, the selection of
which should first receive the approval of
the legislative body, Final action on the
measure is yet to come, and this fact
doubtless prompts the appeal to enlight-
ened public sentiment to aid in preventing
"the contamination of the greatest iniquity
and infamy in the history of the twen-
tieth century" This protest." says Mr..
Sienkiewicz, shall be the definitive iudg-
ment Of universal conscience against an
unprecedented crime and this shall also be
the mightiest plea for the defense Of an
important fraction of a civilized nation that
has well deserved of mankind" And surely
in such a protest no nation should be more
fully or more earnestly represented by its
men eminent in science, literature and
art than the great republic whose inde-
pendence Kosciusko and Pulaski helped to
win.
The real cause of the forced recall Of NJ
Bompard, French ambassador to st. Pc
tersburg, was similar to that which sent
British ambassador, Sacksville West, hur-
rledly home from the United States during
the Cleveland regime. West committed the
indiscretion of advising a correspondent
of assumed British sympathies how he
should vote in the coming presidential cleo
tion. The French ambassadors letter to
correspondent written over a year ago
and lately published, was much more seri-
Gus, inasmuch as It questioned the ability
of the Russian government to meet it's
financial obligations and predicted the sue
cess of the revolutionists and the over
throw of the czar's government. Through
a rigid censorship of the mails the assailed
government evidently secured possession
of the letter before its delivery, and there
upon inspired persistent attacks upon the
ambassador through the official press,
doubtless with the hope of forcing his res
ignation without exposing the hand which
rifled the mails. This method failing and
the revolution having subsided, the cars
government assumed the risk of offending
friendly nation by requesting the am
bassador's recall. The circumstance of the
recall appear not to have injured NJ
Bompard in the estimation of France, for
the government has given him special dis
tiuction in the Legion of Honor. On the
contrary, the damage is confined to the
cars government The manner in which
the letter was secured is discreditable and
its publication irreparably damages the
credit of Russia with a nation whose peo-
pie advanced vast sums of money to the
czar during the crucial days of the war
with Japan.
One of the correspondents ION the spot"
at Lisbon describes the personality Of the
young king of Portugal as very win
ming" "As a lad he displayed fine, manly
traits. IIe had considerable artistic talent,
especially for music, and, like his father,
was exceedingly fond of outdoor sports,
such as tennis riding and shooting. He
was reared with great care by the de-
voted queen, who took the warmest inter-
est in the education of the princes, both !
of whom spoke English, French and italian !
The kings English tutor sings
the praises of the king and his dead
brother. They were ideal young men," he
said, and then told an anecdote illustrative
of the kings gentle nature. AS the prince
he had always spoken of the queen as
Her majesty" One day, ~however he
used the term mother" then he turned
to the tutor and said II think like the
word mother best. l read last night that
the queen was lost in the wife, the wife in
the mother" King Manuel is especially |
fond of America and Americans. In May, |
1904, when he was appointed a naval ap-
prentice, an American squadron under
Rear Admiral Barker, then at the Azores,
fastened it's arrival few days at the re-
quest of the American minister, Charles
Page Bryan, In order to be present at the
ceremony. The prince was overjoyed at
the courtesy and seldom failed, when
speaking to Minister Bryan since to re-
call the delight and pleasure he had at the
presence of the American officers.
In two years a railroad will be finished
in the Hedjaz, connecting Mecca with the
outside world. 1t will soon be but a four
days flight, instead of a wearisome four
months ride or walk from remote Syria.
Mecca happens TO be at present scourged
with cholera Always when the pilgrim
age occurs in midwinter Mecca has the
cholera. 1t will walk out of Mecca with
the Mohammedan pilgrims. The railroad
that two years from now will facilitate
their travel may facilitate the movement
Of cholera bacteria. Prof. Cfantemesse of
the Academy OF Medicine. Paris foresees
a spread of cholera from Mecca along the
entire Mediterranean seaboard as early as
next spring, and has sounded a serious
alarm When this Mecca railway is fin
ished, with it's still more rapid dissemina-
tion of bacilli, he sees Europe reduced to
everlasting vigilance against the introduc-
tion Of the plague. He oounsels for France |
an immediate reorganization of its~auar- |
antine on land. He sees wisdom In an i'm |
mediate international conference Of de- |
fense. The existing sanitary measures at |
all European seaports, he thinks, are hope |
lessy anticuated