23rd May.
An American paper has the following telegram dated from Moukden, the 2rd April: "The British authorities at Hongkong and Singapore are stopping the circulation of the "Echo de Chine" newspaper because it is too Russophile. The Singapore "Straits Times" has, by order of the authorities, refused to publish Russian official dispatches." Another injustice to our French contemporary, and evidence of British swell-mindedness. It is really wonderful hhow they find these things out at Mukden.
Accord'ng to the "Nagasaki Press," strenuous endeavours were made prior to the war by the St. Petersburg Government obtain a coaling station from the King of Siam. Tt was with this object that _an j bassador was appointed to King Chulalongkorn's Court, and entertainments sivan, exceeding those of all the other ministers in maniicent hospitality A
Russian cruiser was sent on a visit, and the festivities were more gorgeous than ever. But when the modest request was proposed for temporary possession of some unconsidered islet in the Gulf of Siam, the Munster was met by a polite though firm refusal. The Bangkok Government saw no reason for granting to Russia what it had never" granted to any other Power, not even to Great Britain, Siam's oldest and closest friend, Anas telegram from St, Petersburg, republished by the " Kobe Herald," gives another aceount—by a Russian newspaper correspondent—of the sinking of the Petropavlovsk, "Moving a& educed speed, the Petropsvlovsk came abreast of Electric Cliff. The to boats were entering the harbour, when sudderly from the starboard side ut the Petropaviovsk's bow a white column shot up. There was a double mulled explosion and the whole flagship became covered with orange-brown smoke. 'They're firing a broadside,' cried a gunner standing beside me, but through my binoculars I gazed speechless and horror-stricken. 1 could seo fragments of wreckage falling from above the broken riggings of the foremast, and flames of fire shooting out. 'She's sinking; she's sinking,' wailed someone beside me. The Petropavlovsk began to settle slow~ ly by the head, heeling far over to starboard until her rail was under water, Her bow had already disappeared and now the foremast was sinking. I could still see tha conning tower, Then her smokestacks disappeared, They seemed to fall through the water and-the sea began to engulf the mainmast, Her after-turret with its guns pointing skyward quickly vanished; then her stern, with the port propeller still revolving I could see figures desperately clutching at the slippery hull and tongues of flame. A ast explosion and all was over. The flagship was no more. Boats from the torpstln~ boat destroyer Gaydamak hurried to the scene of the disaster. It was forty minutes past eight in the morning."
"the report adds that Vice-Admiral Makaroff was at his post on the bridge when the disaster occurred. (The account already reprinted in our columns, from one who was on board the ill-fated vessel, stated that the Admiral was below at the time.) Another Statement in this fresh report was that the Petropavlovsk went down bow first, as the Victoria did, and exactly as Admiral Makazof's own model did when, during lecture which he delivered in 1894, he demonstrated the instability of heavily armoured ships and the impossibility at the ime of a disaster, by collision, mines, or otherwise, of restoring the equilibrium of such steel monsters.
The matter of the last train which left Vorb Arthur, and which was fired on by the Japanese, continues to attract atten ti The "Japan Mail" has the news, vid Ub foo, that there ware 80 Chinese in the tr and some 200 (the original report sail 2,000) civil officials from Port Arthur. One of the drivers was hit in the leg when the train was fired' upon at Pulantien. The train wat way quite unupprehensive of attack apparently proceeding in ts ordinary when the firing began recourse to.the uso of the Red Ci were possibly me sick and wounded on board, hofsling the Red Cross flag the train should have stopped for examination. The "Ma'l" remarks: "The attempt to turn the tables and convict the Japanese of an outrage is nite contemptible. The Japanese are not firing on red-cross flags. They are not murdering and mutating Russian prisoners, They sre behaving with marked humanity."
The "Novi Kral" of the Sth inst. reports th t the remains of twenty-six Japanese Marines who died in the engagement outside Port Arthur on the 3rd inst, were taken out "of tle Naval Hospital on the beach and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.