Lying alongside Tanjong Pagar Wharf, says the Singapore Free Press ut the 28th February, there is at present a ship which presents "features which ace umigue in history. And the leaders in this effort are the Japanese, who, if they have but recently begun to vie with European tions in" the arts that accompany sation, have certainly made great Progress in recent years, perhaps greater than they are often given credit for. The cate of the sick and wounded in war is no new feature, but the building of " ship having for its object the alleviation of the sufferings caused by war is distinctly novel.
Phe Hukwai Maru isa vessel of about two thousand "tons, built by Messre Lobnitz & Ca. of Renfrew, for the Japanese Red Cross Society. She lias been especially designed to serve as a hospital ship in times of war, and to that end has a large Htroop deck, with beds for some three hundred patients. The cabins and saloons have been arranged to furnish further accommodation for sick and wounded, with the necessary staff of doctors, nurses, and attendants. In times of peace she will be used as an ordinary merchant vessel, and is {to run, we understand onthe Shanghai. Yokohama run of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The first-class accommodatioti (now for 34 passengers) would then be devoted to the medical staff, and the second-class to the nurses and attendants. The necessary fittings are all on board, but they will be landed at Yokohama, and the vessel will then be available as anfordinary liner, with this distinction, that the accommodation is particularly good. The cabins and saloons are spacious and airy, the fittings of the vessel in good taste and of a cheerful design that could not fail to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.