Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1898 — FRANCE STEPS IN. [ARTICLE]

FRANCE STEPS IN.

Tricolor Hoisted Over the Island of Hai-Nan. Shanghai advices say that the admiral of the French fleet has hoisted the French flag on Hai-Nan island. The Chinese offered no opposition. A dispatch to the London Daily Mail from Singapore confirms the report of the seizure of HaiNan island by the, French. Hai-Nan island is off the south coast of China and separates the Gulf of Tonquin from the China sea. It has an estimated, area of 12,000 square miles and a population of Chinese, exclusive of wild tribes in the interior. According to the Neueste Nachrichten of Leipsic, Prince Bismarck disclaims all responsibility far Germany’s policy in China, but he approves Itaud wishes it executed with energy, on the assumption that it implies an entente with Russia. According to a special dispatch from Shanghai, the British admiralty has requisitioned three of the empress’ steamships, belonging to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. The Tagliche Rundschau, on what it alleges to be the “best authority in London,” declares that Russia and China have been negotiating for many months; that China consented last October to*a temporary Russian occupation of Port Arthur, and that England, hearing of this, demanded a cession of the islands at Hong-Kong, a strip of coast opposite Kow Loon and the mouth of the River Canton; but, knowing that France also wanted compensation, England suggested that she should take Hai-Nan island.