Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1898 — FOREIGN. [ARTICLE]

FOREIGN.

An Irish heiress, Miss Janie M. Westroff, has mysteriously disappeared in Boston. Crown Princess Stephanie is critically ill with inflammation of the lungs at Vienna. The Spanish cruiser Vizcaya arrived at Havana nnd was received with great popular acclaim. Frederick Tennyson, the poet, eldest brother of the late poet laureate, Lord Alfred Tennyson, is dead. One hundred und twenty-six members of the Bismarck family held a reunion’at Berlin. The prince, however, was absent. The British steamer Bramble, Capt. Fostlewnite, from Porman, for Mayport, England, is ashore near Flimby. Her rudder nnd proptfller are gone nnd she has apparently been abandoned. The high tides have driven her high on the bench. The queen regent of Holland hns conferred upon Captain William G. Bundle of the American liner St. Louis the decoration of the Order of Orange nnd Nassau for his part iu the rescue of the passengers nnd crew of the sinking steamer Veen dam Feb. 7. The Pekin correspondent of the Berlin Tugeblaat says: “The Chinese government hns cancelled the appointment ns hiotnt of Yau-Ohuu of the official dismissed at German/’s instance for the outrage on Bishop Anzor, thus complying With the German demand for an immediate cancellation. An Anglo-ltalinn syndicate hns obtained n concession for railways and mines, especially coal mines and petroleum wells, in the provlhce of Shon-Si. The emperor hns already approved the concession. Moreover, the Tsung-Ll-Ynmen has given n formal pledge to allow the import, duty free, of foreign goods in their original packages to all points of inland China, on a condition that the packages are not to be opened until they reach their final destination.” In the event of n w*Ar between Nicaragua and Costa Rica it Is snid that the alliance known as the Greater Republic would give to Nicaragua the armed strength of Salvador nnd Honduras. The Nicaraguan army is estimated nt about 8,000 men. Salvador hns not more than 3,000 soldiers, but Honduras hns the bestdrilled nnd equipped force in Central America, numbering 50,000. Against these the Costn Rican army of about 5,000 seems insignificant. But in the present calculations it is thought that Guatemala

would cast her influence with Costa Rica. Guatemala has an army of about 50,000. In this event the forces would be about evenly matched, with Nicaragua, Honduras and Salvador arrayed against Guatemala and Costa Rica. The basis for the view that Guatemala may be drawn into the controversy is the fact that the new president of Guatemala, Senor Estrada Cabrera, was a special envoy to Costa Rica when the latter epuntry was in a former conflict with other Central American States. At that time Guatemala was looked upon as the ready ally of Costa Rica, and it is thought that Cabrera would again incline to the same alliance.