It is reported from Manila that Japanese officers have assumed control of the imperial war college and the trade and commercial schools at Canton, China.
The battleship Ohio, flagship of the American fleet at the Asiatic station, has sailed for Hong Kong, where it will dock and make repairs, so as to be ready for possible emergencies.
A telegram from Odessa states that in the village of Ivanislaw, in the Province of Kherson, 50 Cossacks and 70 gunners appeared a few days ago under orders from a police official and knouted 13 peasants. One of these peasants went mad and others are dying. A schoolmaster became insane after witnessing the scene. The sole offense chargeable against the villagers was their re-election of communal representatives which was in conformity with the ukase of Dec. 24 last.
March 1.—The reactionary policy of Interior Minister Durnovo received a setback yesterday when the action of the St. Petersburg police in closing the central bureau of the Constitutional Democracy was disowned by the Government. Permission was given for the reopening of the bureau.
A dispatch from St. Petersburg says that the financial embarrassments of Russia are increased by the necessity of paying Japan for the maintenance of Russian prisoners.
The new general tariff and conventional tariffs between Russia and Germany, France, and Austria-Hungary go into effect today.
March 2.—It is reported from Shanghai that the Chinese Government has decided to instruct its ministers abroad to assure the Powers that there is no cause for uneasiness in the present situation in China and that there are no signs of an anti-foreign movement.
March 3.—As the result of a series of special councils composed of forty high dignitaries presided over by the Czar, the main guarantees of liberty have been granted to the Russian people and a manifesto is to be coded and incorporated in the laws of the empire.
March 4.—A terrific cyclone swept over the Society and Cook’s Islands in the Pacific Ocean on February 7 and 8. It is said 10,000 persons perished. The damage to property is estimated at a million dollars.
March 5.—At Tokio a bill was introduced in the Diet providing for the nationalization of the railways, and authorizing the government to compel companies to sell out to it at a price based on the cost of building plus twenty times the average profits for the last three years.