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Page 7
While in the performance of this duty, Mr. Kellet was attacked and
beaten by Siamese soldiers.
One of our gunboats, the _Raleigh_, was sent out to Bangkok to
investigate the matter, and to protect the interests of our citizens
there.
At the time the trouble occurred, the then Secretary of State, Mr.
Olney, thought that perhaps Mr. Kellet had been over-hasty, and the
soldiers were not to blame.
The message from Bangkok which now reaches us shows that Mr. Olney was
wrong.
The Siamese Government has decided that the soldiers were in the wrong,
and a lieutenant and four privates who took part in the affair have been
severely reprimanded, and suspended from their regiments without pay for
several months.
The Siamese Government has offered to make the fullest amends for the
outrage, and Consul-General Barret, in his despatches, says that Mr.
Kellet's conduct throughout was all that could be desired.
The commission sent up to inquire into the matter declared that the
viceroy of the district should have been able to check the ill-feeling
of the soldiers, and he, too, has been reprimanded.
The story of the affair, as it now reaches us, is that Mr. Kellet's
servant was arrested by the native troops who act as police in the town
of Chang Mai, where the Vice-Consul had gone to look into the Cheek
claim. Mr. Kellet's interference on behalf of his servant enraged the
soldiers, who set upon him and beat him severely.
The Siamese Government has taken such a determined stand, and has
offered such complete apologies for the offence, that there is now no
ill-feeling about the matter, and the relations that exist between the
two countries are more friendly than ever.
The king of Siam, Chulalongkorn, who has been travelling through Europe
since the jubilee celebrations, and of whose visit to Italy we told you
in a former number, has made many friends for himself and his country
by his intelligence and his charming manners.
This king has manifested a close interest in the progress of
civilization throughout his travels, and his country will certainly
benefit from his broadened views when he returns home. His two sons are
being educated at Harrow, which is one of the great English public
schools, and the rival of the famous Eton, of which you must have heard.
Public school in England does not mean free school for the benefit of
the public, as it does with us, but a high-class school where the
classics are taught, and which is patronized principally by the wealthy
and titled classes, because the fees are so high that they are beyond
the reach of ordinary people.
* * * * *
Reports are coming in from various sections of the country of the
disastrous forest fires that are raging.
In Michigan and Indiana, the smoke from these fires is so dense that it
lies over the surface of Lake Michigan like a thick fog, and the sailors
have difficulty in finding their way through it.
In the southern part of Canada the losses have been terrible from these
fires. Thousands of dollars' worth of timber has been destroyed, and
many persons have lost their homes and their crops.
In Manitoba the flames are said to be spreading, and there is great fear
that the fire will reach the more thickly populated districts. Every
effort is being made to prevent the fire from getting a start on the
Minnesota side of the boundary, but it is feared that it will be
impossible to do so.
Settlers have been fighting the flames day and night for over a week,
but have made little progress.
Some two thousand Canadians have been rendered homeless and ten persons
have been burned to death. In their advance the terrible flames have
destroyed the towns and villages that lay in their path, and the report
from Ontario alone states that farms, dwellings, stores, churches, and
schools have been swept away by this dreadful scourge.
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