Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/444

 20 CHEONICLE. [afbh.

2. The Chinese authorities at Tien-tsin notified that the entire fore- shore of the recently opened port at Ching-wang-tao was reserved to the Chinese, rendering its opening nugatory.

— The New Zealand Premier, Mr. Seddon, telegraphed an offer to despatch 600 volunteers to Samoa if required.

— A body of British and American blue-jackets and marines sur- prised by an ambush in a German plantation near Samoa, by the followers of Mataafa, and one British and two American officers killed, and nine men wounded.

3. The Volunteers assembled at various places in the home district, and went through manoeuvres, but no general assemblage was held.

— The billiard match for the championship and entrance money (about 2000/.), played between John Roberts and C. Dawson, even 18,000 points, and won by the former by 1,814 points.

— The Independent Labour Party held their annual congress at Leeds, under the presidency of Mr. Keir Hardie, and attended by the delegates of about 25,000 members. It was resolved to contest not more than twenty-five seats at the next general election.

4. A unity conference of members of the various Irish Nationalist parties held at Dublin, Mr. Harrington presiding. A resolution, pro- posed by Mr. Dillon, expressing willingness to enter into negotiation with the Parnellites, of whom two only were present, was passed unanimously.

— Serious rioting took place within the boundaries of the Kaulong extension of Hong-Kong, and troops were despatched to Mirz Bay to restore order.

— Herr Wolff, a Catholic, and the leader of the Pan-Germanic party in the Austrian Reichsrath, received into the Protestant Church.

5. The election for the Harrow Division of Middlesex, consequent on the retirement of Mr. Ambrose, Q.C. (C), resulted in the return of Mr. Irwin Cox (C.) by 6,303 votes against 5,198 recorded for Mr. Corrie Grant (L.).

— At the Kingston Quarter Sessions the landlady of the Hautboy Hotel was charged with having refused to supply Viscountess Har- berton with refreshment, on the ground that the latter was in " rational " bicycling costume. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

— Great anxiety expressed in various parts of Russia on account of the spread of Social Democracy, which threatened by its organisation to produce strikes throughout the empire.

6. The elections of County and District Councils took place through- out Ireland. The polling was generally heavy. In Munster and Connaught no Unionists were elected, in Leinster very few, and in Ulster they suffered many defeats. Out of a total of 638 councillors, 526 were Nationalists and 112 Unionists.

— At Ottawa the Canadian Minister of Marine announced the in- tention of the Dominion Government to train annually 1,000 Canadian

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fishermen for service on warships.