Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/455

 1899.] CHEONICLE. 31

31. At Bulawayo the first sod of the Northern Extension Railway turned amid general rejoicings.

JUNE.

1. Major Marchand and his companions of the Fashoda expedition arrived in Paris, and were received with boundless enthusiasm, the route from the station to the Military Club being decked with flags.

— A resolution prohibiting the use of the dum-dum bullet adopted by the Disarmament Commission of the Peace Conference at the Hague by eighteen to three votes— Great Britain, Austria and Italy.

— At Cambridge the jubilee of Professor Sir George Stokes as Lucasian Professor, celebrated by the university, a gold medal and a medal from the French Institute were also presented to him.

2. .The Queen Regent of Spain at the opening of the Cortes announced the cession to Germany of the Ladrones and Caroline Islands, the last relics of the Spanish colonial empire. The price to be paid was 25,000,000 pesetas (876,000*.).

— At Epsom the Oak Stakes won by an outsider, Mr. Douglas Baird's Musa (O. Madden) defeating the favourite, Lord W. Beresford's Sibola (T. Sloan) by a head. Twelve ran.

— Major Esterhazy communicated to the Times and Daily Chronicle an avowal that he had written the bordereau by order of Colonel Sandherr.

— An extraordinary railway accident occurred to the Berlin- Flushing express. When reaching the latter station the pneumatic brakes would not act, the engine dashed through the station and the refreshment room, breaking down two walls, and causing the death of two post officials, and Mdlle. Roth, daughter of the Swiss Minister at Berlin, and delegate to the Hague Conference.

3. At Paris the Court of Cassation unanimously quashed the judg- ment and annulled the sentence passed upon Alfred Dreyfus in 1894, and sent him to be tried again before a court martial at Rennes.

— The first test cricket match between the Australians and England played at Nottingham, resulting in a draw.

— The trackmen's strike on the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada ended in an understanding to refer the wages question to arbitration.

4. M. Loubet, President of the French Republic, whilst attending the Auteuil races made the object of a hostile demonstration, and personally assaulted in a dastardly manner by members of the Jeunesse Royaliste, and other fashionable and reactionary clubs.

5. The centenary of the Royal Institution of Great Britain cele- brated, the Prince of Wales occupying the chair.

— In the House of Commons the resolution granting 30,000/. to Lord Kitchener in recognition of his services in the Soudan, passed by 393 to 51 votes.

— In Paris the Ministry after some discussion decided to adopt severe measures against those who had attempted to pervert the course of justice in the Dreyfus case.