It has therefore been decided to modify the terms of the charter to such a degree that the South African Company can only manage the commercial affairs of their territory, all matters relating to its foreign policy being henceforth in the hands of the British Government.

The House of Commons has been forced to agree to an open discussion of the Transvaal Raid, when the matter of punishing Mr. Rhodes is to be decided upon.  Mr. Hawkesly, the lawyer who holds the missing cablegrams, is also to be summoned before Parliament, and forced to produce them.

* * * * *

The last steamer from Japan brought a renewed protest from the Government against the annexation of Hawaii.

Japan insists that Hawaii must remain an independent country.  She says that as soon as the Panama or Nicaragua canals are opened the importance of the Sandwich Islands will be greatly increased, and that it is necessary to the welfare of Japan that her independence be preserved.

The Japanese minister is reported to have declared that “annexation must not be recognized.  Japan must oppose it to the utmost.”

In spite of this the Senate is going right ahead with the business of the treaty.

In the mean while the Secretary of the Navy is making all the ships at his command ready for service, so that we shall not be altogether unprepared to defend ourselves if occasion arises.

* * * * *

There is not very much to tell in regard to the strike.  No settlement has been reached, and there is not much likelihood that the miners and masters will come to any understanding at present.

We told you that some of the miners had stood out against the offer of better wages, and refused to go to work until the condition of their fellows throughout the country had been improved.

All the miners have not been as brave and loyal as these men.

In some parts of Western Virginia, such excellent wages have been offered to the men, that they have weakened and gone back to work in spite of the fact that the labor agitators have been constantly urging them to remain firm.

They have been telling the men that they will secure great benefits if they will only hold together.

At one time there was some hope that the men might submit the whole matter to arbitration, but this seems doubtful.

* * * * *

Another report about the use of the X rays in the French Custom-House has reached us.

This time the rays were applied to thirty packages which had arrived by parcels-post.  It took but fifteen minutes to examine the whole of these packets, and their contents were discovered without the necessity of breaking a seal or untying a string.

The amusing part of the story is that the thirty persons to whom the parcels were addressed had been asked by the officers if there was anything dutiable in them, and all had replied in the negative.