that the Dutch are treated in Cape Colony, at as early a date as the Dutch themselves will allow this to be done. It is to be feared, however, that the Dutch will be so disobliging as to go on fighting for some time, and that Kitchener will adopt more and more stringent methods, maintaining the policy of burning farmhouses and Weylerizing the disaffected regions.

England's difficulties in subjugating England's Minor Troubles the Boers in South Africa have tended in Africa. for many months to obscure certain developments in other portions of the Dark Continent which would otherwise have attracted world-wide notice. The siege of Kumassi by the Ashantis in the early summer of 1900 was resisted by the handful of British troops under Sir Frederick Hodgson with no less heroism than was simultaneously displayed by the imprisoned foreigners in the British legation at Peking. At one time this stronghold of the Gold Coast was surrounded by 10,000 hostile natives. The march

BLOWING UP A BOER FARMHOUSE.

(From a genuine photograph taken by an officer.)

of the relief column commanded by Colonel Willcocks, and the subsequent punitive expeditionsthe details of which have only become known in London within the past month-were as severe tests of the British soldier's qualities of endurance and pluck as have been afforded by any of the campaigning in the Transvaal and Natal. The region of the Gold Coast seems at last to have been entirely reconquered by the British troops, with the aid of the loyal native levies.

SIR F. M. HODGSON.

(Governor of Ashanti, besieged in Kumassi.) In November last a rising of the Ogaden Somalis in the Jubaland province of British East Africa was reported. These tribes are aggressive, and have gradually pushed southward in the British sphere of influence. The facts of the present situation have been very meagerly reported, but there is a feeling in England that the outlook is serious.

The United States

The developments of the past month have at least made plain the policy of and China. the United States in the negotiations conducted at Peking. Whatever may be inferred as to the attitude of other nations in this crisis, the Washington Government has made its purposes fully known. President McKinley, in his annual message to Congress on December 3, after reviewing the history of the Boxer outbreak and the siege of the foreigners in Peking, said:

The policy of the United States through all this trying period was clearly announced and scrupulously carried out. A circular note to the powers dated July 3 proclaimed our attitude. Treating the condition in the north as one of virtual anarchy, in which the great provinces of the south and southeast had no share, we regarded the local authorities in the latter quarters as representing the Chinese people, with whom we sought to remain in peace and friendship. Our declared aims involved no war against the Chinese nation. We ad

hered to the legitimate office of rescuing the imperiled legation, obtaining redress for wrongs already suffered, securing wherever possible the safety of American life and property in China, and preventing a spread of the disorders or their recurrence.

The United States was in full harmony with Russia regarding the restoration of the imperial power at Peking, holding that effective reparation for wrongs suffered and an enduring settlement that will make their recurrence impossible can best be brought about under an authority which the Chinese nation reverences and obeys." In the matter of indemnity, the President was inclined to seek increased guarantees of security for the rights and immunities of foreigners, together with the " open door to commerce, rather than heavy

money payments.

What the Powers Demand.

The demands agreed on in November by the ministers at Peking as the basis of negotiations with China proved to be not wholly satisfactory to the powers. To the article providing that twelve Chinese officials of high rank should be executed, the United States made the objection of impracticability, and in this objection Russia concurred. All the other nations, with the exception of Germany, finally accepted this view of the matter, and it was agreed by the powers that the Chinese Government should be charged with the infliction of the severest punishment on the principal offenders that it is able to inflict. Guarantees must be given that these men will be so punished, and the powers must have evidence that the punishments have been carried out in good faith. On the subject

and

of indemnity, it was decided that the Chinese Government should acknowledge liability for injuries to governments, corporations, persons, and agree to pay damages, actual and exemplary, to be fixed in such manner as the peace plenipotentiaries should decide. The United States and Russia declared in favor of transferring the indemnity question to the permanent court of arbitration at The Hague. The other demands already adopted by the ministers, to several of which the United States objected, but for the sake of harmony finally accepted, are, in substance, as follows:

The erection by China of a monument to Baron von Ketteler and the sending of an imperial prince to Berlin to make apology for his murder. Officials failing to prevent outrages on foreigners in their districts shall be dismissed and punished.

A single minister of foreign affairs shall be appointed, displacing the Tsung-li-Yamen, or foreign board.

National intercourse between the diplomatic corps and the Emperor shall be permitted.

Forts along the Peiho, between Peking and Taku, and forts on the coast of Pechili, shall be razed.

The importation of arms and munitions of war shall be prohibited.

Permanent foreign guards at the Peking legations and at points between Peking and Taku shall be maintained.

Edicts for the suppression of the Boxers shall be

posted throughout the empire for two years.

Monuments shall be erected by China in international burial-places that have been profaned.

New treaties of trade and navigation shall be negotiated.

Chinese employed by foreigners shall be paid indem

nity for injuries; but this is not to include the native Christians not employed by foreigners.

Additional delay in the signing of the note containing these demands was caused by Great Britain's objection to certain phraseology in the agreement. Early in December, General Chaffee, in command of the United States legation guard, made a protest to Field-Marshal Count von Waldersee against the looting of Chinese imperial buildings. It was reported that General Chaffee expressed himself so vigorously in his letter to Count von Waldersee that the letter was returned. But a second letter proved more acceptable to the German commander, and steps were taken to prevent looting in future.

Our Adventures in the

The Hon. Oscar S. Straus does not pre

tend to be a sheriff, and still less does Mediterranean. the Hon. Lloyd C. Griscom, who has represented us at Constantinople as chargé d'affaires in the absence of Mr. Straus, who is now in this country. Mr. Straus succeeded in getting the Turkish Government to acknowledge its obligation in the matter of an indemnity for the destruction of American college buildings in Armenia, and he further succeeded in securing repeated promises that a specified sum of money should be paid. But, as we have said, he was not a sheriff, and he could not levy on the Sultan's personal effects in the Yildiz palace. It was supposed, however, that our newest battleship, the Kentucky, might virtually play the rôle of sheriff when Capt. Colby M. Chester was instructed to visit the Turkish port of Smyrna with that fine example of our shipbuilding. But after Captain Chester had run up to Constantinople to enjoy the hospitality of the Sultan, the Kentucky, in due course, about the 17th of December, weighed anchor at Smyrna and proceeded by way of the Suez Canal on her journey to Manila. And on that same date it was declared at Washington that this had not proved to be the psychological moment for pressing the Sublime Porte to pay up. The idea had prevailed for a few days that the missionary claim had been met indirectly through an increased price to be paid to the Cramps by the Turkish Government for a cruiser; but it does not appear that the contract for that long-discussed cruiser has been signed.

MR. OSCAR S. STRAUS.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Government has persistently refused to permit Dr. Norton, appointed by our Government as consul to Khartum, to establish his office there with the customary exequatur. Mr. Straus has resigned, and our minister to Switzerland, Mr. Leishman, takes the vacant place, Minister Hardy in turn being transferred from Greece to Switzerland. CharlesS. Francis, of New York, goes to Athens. What the Kentucky did not accomplish by going to Smyrna it seems that the little auxiliary cruiser Dixie was able to perform in the caseof our modest claim of $5,000 against the government of Morocco. The Dixie was instructed to promote the effort of our consul-general at Tangier, Mr. Gummere, to collect an indemnity for the killing of a naturalized citizen at Fez. The consul-general telegraphed on December 18 that the money had been paid.

to

belonged to Spain, except Brazil, which belonged Portugal, and the Guiana settlements, which were then mere trading points on the northern coast. All of Central America and Mexico belonged to Spain; and in what is now the United States, Spain owned Florida. and a very large part of all the territory west of the Mississippi, including California and the Pacific Coast as far north as Puget Sound. For a generation previous to the year 1800, even the vast Louisiana territory also belonged to Spain. In addition to these continental colonies, Spain owned Cuba and other West Indian islands, and, off the coast of Asia, the great Philippine group. What is left to the Spaniards is, after all, by far their most valuable possession - namely, Spain itself. There is a point of view from which it may be said that Spain has really lost nothing at all. The people of Spain, the common citizens, have clearly gained rather than lost. A few merchants of Barcelona, it is true, have been deprived of profitable markets which were theirs by virtue of exclusive tariff arrangements, while a certain number of army officers and civil officials have lost the opportunity to go out to the colonies to fatten on the gains of corrupt admin

the plans, and are about to enter upon the work of building the long-proposed bridge across the Bosporus at Constantinople which will give Asia Minor and the Orient direct railway communication with Europe. Our illustration shows the massive bridge of granite and steel that has been designed by the Bosporus Railway Company as the connecting link between the railways of Europe and the trans-Asiatic, or Bagdad, road that the Germans are constructing. This bridge will be built on just the same spot as was occupied in ancient times by a military bridge built by Greek engineers, over which on one occasion it is recorded that Darius marched with 800,000 Persian soldiers. Industry,

rather than war, supplies the twentieth century motive for engineering projects.

Julio Betancourt, Colombia.

istration. But to the common people of Spain, Cuba and the Philippines had come to mean nothing at all except an empty point of pride and a terrible military tax, both of money and of the blood of their sons. The mere sundering of the bond of political sovereignty does not make the Spanish speaking world any smaller. On the other hand, Spain's final withdrawal from political participation in the affairs of the New World, by virtue of the loss of Cuba, is likely enough to be the beginning of a new and a better relationship between the whole of Spanish America and the European mother-country.

Congress at

The Spanish- This has already been illustrated very American strikingly by the important congress Madrid. that has within a few weeks been held at Madrid, under the auspices of the Spanish Government, and made up of distinguished representatives from all the countries of Spanish America, for the purpose of discussing questions of mutual interest having to do with social and economic progress. Spain's retention of Cuba against the will of the greater part of the Cubans themselves had made impossible the closest and most cordial relations between the SpanishAmerican republics and the old country; for the reason that the rebellious attitude of the Cubans

was a constant reminder of the long and terrible struggle of the continental provinces themselves, during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, to secure their own emancipation. Henceforth, having given up all claim to further authority in the Western Hemisphere, Spain is in a position to cultivate trade, commerce, and friendly relations of all kinds, based on community of race, language, and literature, with the assurance that her efforts to establish mutually profitable connections will not be misunderstood. It is likely enough that there are some Spaniards who, with lingering sentiments of enmity toward the United States, would like to promote interstate alliances among the Spanish-American republics in a spirit of opposition to the growing power of English-speaking North America. But such an idea could not be successful, and is not at all likely to have encouragement. The wiser thought in Spain is that conditions are almost or quite ripe for the establishment of mutually favorable reciprocity arrangements between Spain and the United States. There is nothing but friendly feeling in this country toward Spain, and there is the most cordial desire that the resources of the Iberian Peninsula should have rapid development. The Spanish colonial system was so corrupt that it poisoned government, not merely in