London, Dec. 17.
At Harwich the naval tender Elfin, which was conveying a hundred bluejackets, collided with a submarine. The Elfin sank in five minutes. Five bluejackets were drowned, but the submarine, which A SERIOUS INCIDENT, Peking, Dee. 15.
Private letters from Harbin, dated December 12, state that Chinese police attempted to arrest two Russian officers and two Cossacks, who were en route to Blagovestchensk from Sakhalin, near Aigan. One officer escap and returned on the fifteenth instant accompanied by 200 Cossacks for the purpose of release ing his comrades. The Chinese refused to deliver them up and a conflict ensued, in which several were wounded, but none killed. The prisoners were released and the force returned to Blagovestchensk.
The Chinese state officially that the affair is not serious. No further details are known.—Our Own Correspondent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.