A correspondent of the Debats, writing from Yokohama,. gives some
very interesting items of information. French interference between China and Japan is, he says, likely to. cost French firms the loos of all contracts for the Japanese Government. The Japanese Government intends at once spending a part of the indemnity in the purchase of eight swift cruisers, four belted cruisers, twelve torpedo-sloops, and a flotilla of gunboats. Other schemes on foot are the con- struction of new railways, the enlargement of the arsenals, the construction at Kobe of a dry-dock capable of accommo- dating a ship of 15,000 tons. A cable from Kagoshima in Japan to Formosa and the Pescadores, passing by the Loo Choo Islands, is also contemplated. There is also talk of building an iron bridge over the Straits of Simonoseki- The possibility of an alliance with a European Power is often mentioned by the native newspapers. It is easy to read between the lines that the popular alliance would be with England.
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