To an Obstructionist: A Poem

SOME LEADING EVENTS IN THE CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD.

BY DR. J. M. TANNER, SUPERINTENDENT OP CHURCH SCHOOLS.

Russia's Foreign Complications.

The Russians have, no doubt,long entertained grave suspicions that both the Americans and the English were engaged in shipping to Japan contraband of war. This was giving their enemies indirect aid which, of course, was harmful to the Russian cause. The condition of Russia's navy made it difficult to patrol the seas, and thus prevent munitions of war from other countries entering Japanese ports. At the outset of the war, the Russian navy was at a great disadvantage, from the fact that it was divided into four parts: one at Vladivostok, one at Port Arthur, a third in the Black Sea, shut up by terms of a treaty with the Great Powers, and the fourth at Kronstadt, near St, Petersburg. The first stroke of Japanese policy was to put the first two divisions practically out of commission. The distance from St. Petersburg to the Yellow Sea, and the difficulty of securing coal for so long a voyage, made the St. Petersburg division practically useless. Perhaps the greater reason why the St. Petersburg fleet has not ventured into Asiatic waters has been the fear of its destruction. Suddenly, about the middle of July, three Russian ships in the volunteer fleet of the Black Sea made their appearance in the Red English and German vessels, on their Sea, and set up a search of way to China and Japan. From one of the German vessels, Prince Heinrieh, the Russians took fifty-five mail sacks. Against this seizure, the Germans made a hasty protest. A similar seizure of

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mail had been made by the English from a German vessel in Delagoa Bay, in the eastern part of Africa, on the 29th of December, 1899, during the Boer war. This was an acknowledged excess of authority by Great Britain, and the latter paid damages for the mistake. The seizure, however, which caused the greatest excitement was that of the British steamship Malacca. This ship had aboard munitions of war consigned to Hong Kong. The materials of war were in boxes with the government arrow label on them, and it was claimed by the English that they were equipments for their warships in Chinese waters. The Malacca, however, was also booked for Yokohama, a Japanese port. The incident created the most intense excitement throughout England. The English papers took on a warlike tone, and Russia yielded to the demands of Great Britain, and released the ship with an apology, and proffered damages to the owner. A little later some Vladivostok warships ventured into the open sea, along the eastern coast of Japan, where they seized another British steamship, loaded with railroad materials for Chemulpo Bay. This is a harbor in Corea, and the material was evidently intended for the Japanese railroad, in process of construction from Seoul to V/iju. The seizure of the Knight Commander created some alarm in this country, as its cargo was taken from one of our American ports. The vessel, however, was sunk, and this disposition of a captured prize was stoutly objected to in the English press. Russia has, no doubt, very greatly alarmed many of our American shippers who evidently felt secure in the thought that the Russian navy was all bottled up in Port Arthur and Vladivostok, Just what constitutes contraband of war is an open question. Neither this country nor Great Britain has acceded to the definition put upon it by the Russians. Another matter of open controversy was the act of Russia in taking her volunteer warships out of the Black Sea through the Bosporus and Dardanelles into the Mediterranean Sea, in defiance of a treaty among the Great Powers which forbade any of them taking warships through the Dardanelles toward Constantinople, or from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean. The Russian reply to Great Britain is that the latter is estopped from making the charge against Russia on the