of property were ordered and countenanced by the officers of
the German Army, that elaborate provision had been made for
systematic incendiarism at the very outbreak of the war, and
that the burnings and destruction were frequent where no
military necessity could be alleged, being indeed part of a
system of general terrorization.
(iv.) That the rules and usages of war were frequently broken,
particularly by the using of civilians, including women and
children, as a shield for advancing forces exposed to fire, to
a less degree by killing the wounded and prisoners, and in the
frequent abuse of the Red Cross and the white flag.
Sensible as they are of the gravity of these conclusions the committee
conceive that they would be doing less than their duty if they failed to
record them as fully established by the evidence. Murder, lust, and
pillage prevailed over many parts of Belgium on a scale unparalleled in
any war between civilized nations during the last three centuries.
Our function is ended when we have stated what the evidence establishes,
but we may be permitted to express our belief that these disclosures
will not have been made in vain if they touch and rouse the conscience
of mankind, and we venture to hope that as soon as the present war is
over the nations of the world in council will consider what means can be
provided and sanctions devised to prevent the recurrence of such horrors
as our generation is now witnessing.
We are, &c.,
BRYCE,
F. POLLOCK,
EDWARD CLARKE,
KENELM E. DIGBY,
ALFRED HOPKINSON,
H.A.L. FISHER,
HAROLD COX.
SCRIABIN'S LAST WORDS.
[From The London Times, May 1, 1915.]
M. Briantchaninov, an intimate friend of Scriabin, telegraphed the news
of the composer's death to a friend in England. He stated that Scriabin
died of the disease of the lip from which he was suffering when in
England last year, and that he had just finished the "wonderful poetical
text" of the prologue to his "Mystery." When Scriabin was suffering
terrible pain just before his death he clenched his hands and his last
words were: "I must be self-possessed, like Englishmen."
M. Briantchaninov is collecting a fund for Scriabin's children, and he
suggests that possibly "some English friends and admirers" may care to
contribute.
Chronology of the War
Showing Progress of Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From
March 31, 1915, Up to and Including April 30, 1915
[Continued from the May number.]
CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE
April 1--Russians take up lively offensive in Central Poland, seeking
to prevent reinforcements being sent to the Carpathians; they halt a
raid from Bukowina; Austrians drive back Russians near Inowlodz, on the
Pilica River; Germans check night attempt of Russians to cross the Rawka
River; German bombardment of Ossowetz has been abandoned; cold weather
is favoring German operations in East Prussia; German Headquarters Staff
reports that in March the German Eastern army took 55,800 Russian
prisoners, 9 cannon, and 61 machine guns.
April 2--Russians take the offensive along their whole front from the
Baltic Sea to Rumanian border; they are reported to be concentrating an
enormous force on the coast of Finland to prevent any attempt at a
German landing; Germans in Poland are being pushed back to the East
Prussian border; Russians capture another strongly fortified ridge in
the Carpathians, scaling ice-covered hills to do it; vast bodies of
Russian cavalry are held in readiness for a sweep across the plains of
Hungary; main Austrian Army in Bukowina is falling back; Russians now
stand upon last heights of the main chain of Beskid Mountains; Austrians
repulse Russian attacks east of Beskid Pass; Russians drive back Germans
to the east of Pilwiszka; Austrians repulse Russian attacks between the
Pruth and Dniester Rivers.
April 3--Fighting in the Carpathians continues night and day along a
forty-mile front; Russians are making gains and pressing Austrians hard;
Germans are pouring reinforcements into Hungary to support Austrians;
Austrians gain in Bukowina; Austrians are trying to cut off Montenegro
from all communication with the outside world and starve her into
submission.
April 4--Austrians retreat from the Beskid region after Russian success;
Austrians make progress in the Laborcza Valley; fighting has been going
on for twenty-four continuous hours on both sides of the Dukla Pass;
Germans repulse Russian attacks near Augustowo.
April 5--Russians continue to make steady progress in the Carpathians;
they are now on the Hungarian side of both the Dukla and Lupkow Passes
and are making advances on the heights which dominate Uzsok Pass;
Russians gain in Bukowina and in North Poland.
April 6--Russians continue their great offensive in the Carpathians;
Austrians are retreating at some points and burning their bridges behind
them; Russians make progress in direction of Rostok Pass; German
reinforcements are being rushed from Flanders to Austria via Munich;
Austrian and German troops take strong Russian positions east of
Laborcza Valley; Russians have been repulsed in an attempt to cross to
the left bank of the Dniester River southwest of Uscie-Diekupie;
Austrian artillery is bombarding Serbian towns on the Danube and the
Save.
April 7--Russians continue offensive between the River Toplia and the
Uzsok Pass region; Austrians take guns and war material on the heights
east of the Laborcza Valley; Austrians bombard Belgrade; Austrians win
ground along the River Pruth; Austrians are reported to have passed the
Dniester and to be advancing on Kamenitz Podolsky, in Russian territory.
April 8--Russian advance in the Carpathians cuts one Austrian army in
two; Russians capture Smolnik, east of Lupkow Pass; fierce fighting is
going on in the mountain passes.
April 9--The whole southern slope of the Carpathians has been strongly
fortified by the Austrians; twenty-four Austrian and six German army
corps are stated to be now facing the Russians.
April 10--Russians begin attack on German forces which hold the hills
from Uzsok Pass eastward to Beskid Pass; Russians make gains in the
direction of Rostok; the general Russian offensive continues on the
Niznia-Destuszica-Volestate-Bukowecz line; in places in the Carpathians
the Russians are progressing through seven feet of snow; Austro-German
forces repulse a strong Russian attack in the Opor Valley.
April 11--All the main ridges of the Carpathians are now in
the hands of the Russians, who hold the eighty-mile front
Uzsok-Mezo-Laborcza-Bartfeld, with the head sections of five main
railways; at some points the Russians are descending the southern slopes
and are approaching the Uzsok Valley.
April 12--Germans repulse Russian attack near Kaziouwka, Russians losing
heavily; artillery duels are in progress near Ossowetz and in the region
of Edvabno; German attack on village of Szafranki is repulsed;
Austro-Germans still hold the Uzsok Pass; they repulse Russian attacks
east of there.
April 13--Large German reinforcements are being sent to the Austrians;
280,000 Germans, comprising seven army corps, are co-operating with the
Austrians in a formidable attack on the left wing of the Russian army
which is invading Hungary; Austrian Embassy at Washington gives out an
official bulletin from Vienna saying the Russian advance in the
Carpathians is halted; heavy fighting is in progress in the
Bartfeld-Stryi region; Russians advance on both banks of the Ondawa, and
gain success in direction of Uzsok, capturing certain heights;
Austro-German forces strongly attack the heights south of Koziouwa, but
are repulsed; Russians repel German attacks on the front west of the
Niemen; Ossowetz is again bombarded by the Germans; fierce fighting is
on in Bukowina.
April 14--After a twelve-hour battle the Austrians retreat precipitately
from a strong position at Mezo Laborcz, on Hungarian side of the East
Beskid Mountains; the whole main front in this district is in Russian
hands; Austro-German forces are contesting stubbornly every foot of the
German advance along the front from Bartfeld to Stryi; Austrians are
trying to penetrate into Russian territory from Bukowina; Germans are
active in Poland; Germans attack the town of Chafranka, on the Skwa
River, near Ostrolenka; it is stated at Petrograd that 4,000,000
combatants, including both sides, are now engaged along the Carpathians.
April 15--Russians crush fierce counter-attack against their left wing
in the Carpathians made by picked Bavarian infantry; Russians repulse an
attack by Austrians on the extreme east; Austrians defeat Russians near
Oiezkowice, on the Biala.
April 16--War correspondents at Austrian headquarters, in summing up the
result of the fighting in the Carpathians, say that the Russian loss has
been 500,000, and that the backbone of the invading army is broken;
Germans prepare to attack along an 800-mile Russian front.
April 17--The melting of the snow in the Carpathians, resulting in
overflowing streams and rivers and in seas of mud, is stopping various
intended movements on both sides; artillery engagements are in progress
in Southeast Galicia and Bukowina; Russians repulse attacks in the
direction of Stryi; Russian Emperor leaves for the front.
April 18--In a review of the Carpathian campaign issued by Russian
General Headquarters it is stated that since the beginning of March
Russian troops have carried by storm 75 miles of the principal chain of
the Carpathians, have taken 70,000 prisoners, 30 field guns, and 200
machine guns; fighting in the Carpathians on main line of Russian
advance is now concentrated on the narrow section between the villages
of Telepoche and Zuella; Russians gain on the heights of Telepotch;
artillery duels continue in Southeast Galicia.
April 20--Russians repulse vigorous German attack east of Telepotch and
Polen; severe fighting for the height near Oravozil is in progress, the
Russians reoccupying it by a desperate assault after losing it earlier
in the day; 600,000 Austro-German troops are now engaged over an
irregular line between the Lupkow and Uzsok Passes.
April 21--Austrians repel, after several days' fighting, a strong
Russian attack on the extreme wings of the Austrian forces in the wooded
mountains near Laborcza and the Ung Valley; Austrians still hold Uzsok
Pass; Russians repulse Austrian attack in Western Galicia near Gorlitz;
Russians check an Austrian counter-attack against the heights of Polen;
the counter-attack of General Litzinger's Bavarian army against Russian
left wing in the Carpathian position has now been definitely halted;
nevertheless the Russian advance in the Carpathians has now apparently
come to a full stop; Russians reoccupy the hill village of Oravtchik.
April 22--Russians defeat Austrians in bayonet fighting on the Bukowina
front; artillery duels are in progress in Russian Poland and Western
Galicia; Austrians repulse Russian attacks on both sides of the Uzsok
Pass, taking 1,200 prisoners; Russians check attempted Austrian
outflanking movements on the central Carpathian front; in Galicia an
Austro-German army, defeated by Russians, is falling back.
April 23--Austrians have success in artillery duel in the sector of
Nagypolany; Russians gain in the direction of Lutovisk; a strong force
of Russian cavalry invades East Prussia near Memel, the seaport at the
northern extremity of the province, and is threatening the German left
flank; Russians make gains in the region of Telepotch and at Sianka;
Austrians repulse several day attacks at points near Uzsok Pass; heavy
artillery engagements are being fought in the region of this pass.
April 25--Austro-German troops take by storm Ostry Mountain, in the
Orava Valley, in the Carpathians, to the south of Koziouwa; the mountain
is 3,500 feet high, with precipitous sides, and the Russians believed
their fortifications had made it impregnable; this victory gives the
Austrians command of the Orava Valley and allows them to advance their
lines east of Uzsok Pass eleven miles into Galician territory; Russian
artillery repulses a German attack between Kalwaya and Ludwinow in
Prussian Poland; heavy fighting continues in the Carpathians in the
Uzsok Pass region, the Austrians having brought up fresh units of heavy
artillery.
April 26--Russian counter-attacks on the height of Ostry are beaten off;
Austrians capture twenty-six Russian trenches; Austrians gain ground
south of Koziouwa; artillery duel is being fought on the Dniester in
Bukowina.
April 27--Russians have begun another strong offensive around the
heights of Uzsok Pass; Austro-German casualties there in two days are
estimated by Russians at 20,000; Russians repel Austrian attacks on the
heights to the northeast of Oroszepatak; Russians are concentrating at
Bojan, Northern Bukowina.
April 28--Heavy fighting continues in the Uzsok Pass region; a battle
has been raging for five days in the vicinity of Stryi; Russians repulse
Germans at Jednorojetz; Germans take twelve miles of Russian trenches
east of Suwalki; Austrians occupy Novoselitsky, on border of Bessarabia,
and are advancing into Russian territory.
April 29--Germans begin an offensive along nearly the whole of the East
Prussian front, extending from north of the Niemen River to the sector
north of the Vistula; Russians are beaten back in an attack in the
Carpathians northeast of Loubnia; Russians repulse an attack on the
heights of the Opor Valley.
April 30--German cavalry is invading the Russian Baltic Provinces;
German attempt to advance on the left bank of the Vistula is checked: in
the region of Golovetzko the Russians take the offensive, capturing
trenches and prisoners; Russians check an attempted offensive north of
Nadvorna; Austrians repulse Russian night attacks in the Orawa and Opor
Valleys.
CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE.
April 1--Artillery duels are in progress in the Woevre district; French
occupy the village of Fey-en-Haye to the west of the Forest of Le
Prêtre; outpost engagements take place near Lunéville.
April 2--Heavy artillery fighting is on between the Meuse and the
Moselle; night infantry fighting takes place in the Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 3--Germans repulse French in Forest of Le Prêtre; Germans repulse
French attack on heights west of Mülhausen; French make progress with
mining operations southwest of Péronne; French check a German attempt to
debouch near Lassigny; French repulse attacks in Upper Alsace.
April 4--Germans take from the Belgians the village of Drei Grachten on
the west side of the Yser, this being the first time the Germans have
gained a foothold on the west bank for weeks; French make progress in
the Woevre district; French take village of Regniéville, west of
Fey-en-Haye; Germans repulse French charges in Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 5--French capture three successive lines of trenches at the Forest
of Ailly, near St. Mihiel; Germans repulse Belgians near Drei Grachten;
Germans repulse French attempt to advance in the Argonne Forest and
Germans gain ground in the Forest of Le Prêtre; French are advancing in
Champagne; French gain ground in the Hurlus district and beyond the Camp
de Chalons, capturing some of the Germans' prepared positions;
bombardment of Rheims is being continued night and day, and it is
reported that one-third of the houses have been destroyed and another
one-third damaged.
April 6--French are conducting a sustained offensive between the Meuse
and Moselle in an effort to dislodge Germans from St. Mihiel; French
gain trenches in the Wood of Ailly; French make progress near Maizeray
and in the Forest of Le Prêtre; strong French attacks at points east of
Verdun are repulsed, but French occupy village of Gussainville.
April 7--French, continuing extensive operations, make gains in the
Woevre district and southward between St. Mihiel and Pont-à-Mousson;
east of Verdun the French take two lines of trenches, and repulse German
counter-attacks; Germans report that French offensive, as a whole, is
thus far a failure.
April 8--French official report states that since April 4 the French
offensive between the Meuse and the Moselle has resulted in important
gains on the heights of the Orne, on the heights of the Meuse at Les
Eparges, in the Ailly Wood, and in the Southern Woevre between the
Forest of Mortmare and the Forest of Le Prêtre, the Germans losing
heavily; the German report is at variance with French claims and states
that the French have failed; Belgians report that the western side of
the Yser Canal, in the direction of Drei Grachten, is completely free of
Germans.
April 9--Desperate fighting continues on the heights of the Meuse and
along the St. Mihiel-Pont-à-Mousson front; French announce complete
occupation of Les Eparges, one of their chief objectives; French say
Germans were repulsed fifteen times in the Forest of Mortmare; Berlin
report is at sharp variance with the French, stating that all French
attacks in the Meuse region have been repulsed with heavy loss; Germans
make gains in Champagne; Germans retake Drei Grachten from Belgians.
April 10--French extend their gains in the Woevre; French push forward
on St. Mihiel-Pont-à-Mousson front in attempt to cut German
communications; French hold Les Eparges firmly, where, according to the
official French report, the Germans have lost 30,000 men in two months;
Germans repulse French between the Orne and the heights of the Meuse,
and in the Forest of Le Prêtre; French attacks on the village of Bezange
la Grande fail.
April 11--French state that they maintain their gains of previous days
in the St. Mihiel region, though Germans recapture some of their own
lost trenches in Mortmare Wood; French repulse attacks in the Forest of
Le Prêtre, though the Germans capture some machine guns; a strong French
attack on German positions north of Combres results in failure; German
main army headquarters denies that the recent French attacks in the St.
Mihiel region have been successful; Germans take three villages from the
Belgians; Germans are vigorously attacking positions recently taken from
them by the French on Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; furious German attacks are
made near Albert, being a continuation of an attack begun yesterday;
Germans blow up some French trenches by mines; heavy German losses, due
to the pounding of six miles of French artillery, occur in an infantry
advance.
April 12--Lively fighting in the Woevre district; Germans attack Les
Eparges, but are repulsed; French make gains at Courie; Germans have
successes in close-quarter fighting in the Forests of Ailly and Le
Prêtre; German sappers throw letters into British trenches saying they
are tired of fighting and expressing hopes for peace.
April 13--French make slight gains east of Berry-au-Bac; Germans repulse
French attacks at several points; Germans gain ground in the Forest of
Le Prêtre; Germans are moving up reinforcements in the region of
Thionville and Metz.
April 14--French penetrate the German line at Marcheville, but are
driven out by counter-attacks; French extend their front in the Forest
of Ailly, and make progress in the Forest of Mortmare; French artillery
checks a German attack at Les Eparges; activity is renewed at
Berry-au-Bac; Germans are strengthening the forts at Istein, on the
Rhine.
April 15--The whole spur northeast of Notre Dame de Lorette has been
carried by the French with the bayonet; French gain at Bagatelle in the
Argonne; French repulse German counter-attacks at Les Eparges; Germans
repulse French attacks at Marcheville, at the Forest of Le Prêtre, and
elsewhere.
April 16--French repulse German attacks north of Arras and in the St.
Mihiel region.
April 17--French make progress in the Vosges on both sides of the Fecht
River; in Champagne, northeast of Perthes, the Germans explode mines
under French trenches; Germans repulse French near Flirey; French
repulse Germans at Notre Dame de Lorette; in the Valley of the Aisne
French heavy artillery bombards the caves of Pasly, used as German
shelters.
April 18--Germans repulse British attack in the hills southeast of
Ypres; Germans capture an advanced French position in the Vosges
southwest of Stossweier; French have successes in the Valley of the
Aisne, at the Bois de St. Mord, and in Champagne, to the northwest of
Perthes; French make progress in region of Schnepfen-Riethkopf in
Alsace.
April 19--British line south of Ypres has been pushed forward three
miles after much hard fighting; British take Hill 60, an important
strategic point, lying two miles south of Zillebeke; German
counter-attacks are repulsed; British attacks are repulsed between Ypres
and Comines; French make gains along the Fecht River, and capture a
division of mountain artillery; French gain the summit of Burgkorpfeld,
and are advancing on the north bank of the Fecht; French repulse
counter-attacks at Les Eparges; Germans repulse French attacks at
Combres.
April 20--Heavy artillery fighting in Champagne and the Argonne; French
infantry attack fails north of Four-de-Paris; French make slight
progress in the Forest of Mortmare; Germans storm and reoccupy the
village of Embermenil, west of Avrecourt.
April 21--Violent German counter-attacks are being made on Hill 60, but
all have been repulsed, "with great loss to the enemy," according to the
British; Germans capture a French battery near Rheims; French repulse
German attacks at several points between the Meuse and the Moselle;
French repulse attack in Alsace east of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; Germans
repulse French attack north of Four-de-Paris; Germans repulse French
attack extending over a considerable front at Flirey; German gain in the
Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 22--A great new battle is being fought at Ypres, Germans taking a
strong offensive from the northeast; they drive the Allies back to the
Ypres Canal, taking 6,000 prisoners and 35 guns; at Steenstraete and
Het Sase the Germans force their way across the canal and establish
themselves on the west bank; Germans capture villages of Langemarck,
Steenstraete, Het Sase, and Pilken; Ypres is being heavily bombarded;
British and French official reports declare that at one point where the
French fell back they did so because of asphyxiating gas used by the
Germans; the Germans, on the contrary, have claimed several times
recently that the French have been using asphyxiating bombs at various
points; Germans continue tremendous attacks on Hill 60, with what is
declared to be one of the fiercest artillery bombardments in history,
but the British still hold it; German troops are pouring through Belgium
to the Ypres front; Germans gain ground south of La Bassée; Germans
repulse French attack in the western part of the Forest of Le Prêtre;
French repulse attack at Bagatelle, in the Argonne; French gain ground
near St. Mihiel; French continue to advance on both banks of the Fecht
River; official French report states that all the Ailly woods are now in
the hands of the French after several days' fighting in the early part
of April; infantry attacks were preceded by a concentrated artillery
fire, at one point the French firing 20,000 shells in 90 minutes.
April 23--French make progress at Forstat and near St. Mihiel; artillery
duels at Combres, St. Mihiel, Apremont, and northeast of Flirey; French
take advanced German trenches between Ailly and Apremont.
April 24--One of the most furious battles of the war is now raging north
of Ypres, where the Allies have regained some of the ground recently
lost; Germans are pouring more troops into Flanders to push the attack;
the Canadians make a brilliant counter-attack, regaining part of the
ground this division lost, and retake four Canadian 4.7-inch guns which
they had lost; the Canadians are highly praised in the British War
Office report; Germans make further gains at another point on the line
and they seize Lizerne on the west bank of the Ypres Canal; the French
report says the French and Belgians recaptured Lizerne later in the day;
the British have consolidated their position on Hill 60; fierce fighting
is in progress in the Ailly wood; French repulse another attack on Les
Eparges and an attack south of the Forest of Parroy; Germans repel a
number of French attacks between the Meuse and the Moselle; Germans make
progress in the Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 25--Germans gain more ground at Ypres and begin a terrific drive
near La Bassée; Germans capture villages of St. Julien and Kersselaere
and advance toward Grafenstafel, taking British prisoners and machine
guns; Allies repulse Germans at several other points; Germans repulse
French attack in the Argonne and win in the Meuse hills, southwest of
Combres, taking seventeen cannon and 1,000 prisoners; London reports
that clouds of chlorine were released from bottles by the Germans during
the recent fighting at Ypres, the gas being borne by the wind to the
French trenches, killing many men.
April 26--Allies rally and check the German drive near Ypres, fresh
German assaults north and northeast of the city being beaten off; Berlin
says that the Germans retain the west bank of the Yser, while London
reports that the Allies have retaken it; Germans still hold Lizerne, on
the west bank of the canal; Germans take from the French the summit of
Hartmanns-Weilerkopf, capturing 750 men and four machine guns; French
repulse German attack at Notre Dame de Lorette; fighting is in progress
on the heights of the Meuse; German attack on Les Eparges fails.
April 27--Allies repulse German attack northeast of Ypres; British make
progress near St. Julien; French retake Het Sase; Belgians repel three
attacks south of Dixmude, and charge Germans with again using
asphyxiating gases; Allies retake Lizerne; Germans still hold the
bridgehead on the left bank of the canal just east of Lizerne; French
state they have retaken the summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf, but the
Germans declare all French attacks failed; German attacks near Les
Eparges fail.
April 28--Allies are delivering counter-attacks in an attempt to regain
the ground lost north and northeast of Ypres; Germans are bringing up
reinforcements and hold firmly their present lines; scarcely a house is
left standing in Ypres; Germans take French trenches near Beauséjour in
Champagne; French repulse Germans in the Argonne, near Marie Thérèse;
both the Germans and French claim to be in possession of
Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; French gain ground on heights of the Meuse;
Germans repulse strong French night attack in the Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 29--Germans repulse Allies north of Ypres; German official report
states Germans have taken sixty-three guns in Ypres fighting; Germans
repulse French night attacks at Le Mesnil in Champagne; Germans gain
ground on heights of the Meuse; French repulse Germans at Les Eparges.
April 30--French gain ground north of Ypres, taking two lines of
trenches; Belgians have repulsed a German attack from Steenstraete;
Germans have fortified and hold bridgeheads on the west bank of Ypres
Canal near Steenstraete and Het Sase and on the east bank of the canal
north of Ypres; Germans repel a charge of Turcos and Zouaves; a huge
German gun shells Dunkirk from behind the German lines near Belgian
coast, about twenty-two miles away; twenty persons are killed and
forty-five wounded; British airmen locate the gun and bombard it, while
allied warships attack from the sea; French state that they hold the
summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; 500 shells fall in Rheims; French fail
in an attempt in the Champagne district to win back their former
positions north of Le Mesnil; Germans repulse French charge north of
Flirey.
TURKISH AND EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGNS.
April 1--It is learned that the Turks lost 12,000 men and many guns in a
fight against the Russians at Atkutur, Persia, on March 25; preceding
the reoccupation by the Russians of Solmac Plains, northwest of Urumiah,
720 Christians were massacred by the Turks.
April 2--Turks are building new forts at San Stefano, near
Constantinople, and thousands of Turkish troops are employed as workmen
in the ammunition factories, which are being worked to their capacity.
April 3--Turks have repulsed an attempt to land troops from a British
cruiser at Mowilah, at the head of the Red Sea.
April 7--Russians enter Artvin, Russian Armenia; the entire province of
Batum has been cleared of Turks.
April 8--French War Office announces that the expeditionary corps to the
Orient, under command of General d'Amade, has been ready for three weeks
to aid the allied fleets and the British expeditionary force in
operations against Turkey; the French troops are now in camp at Ramleh,
Egypt, resting and perfecting their organization.
April 14--An official report is issued by the India Office of the
British Government which states that 23,000 Turks and Kurds attacked the
British positions at Kurna, Ahwaz, and Shaiba in Mesopotamia on March
12; they were driven off; Turks are daily massing troops on the
Gallipoli Peninsula, especially at Kiled Bahr; heavy guns formerly
around Constantinople, Principo, and Marmora seaports are being removed
to the Dardanelles; a large number of German aeroplanes are with the
Turkish troops.
April 15--The greater part of the garrisons at Adrianople, Demotika, and
Kirk Kilisseh have been withdrawn for the defense of Constantinople.
April 16--India Office of the British Government makes public an
official report stating that the British India troops have inflicted
another defeat on the Turks in the vicinity of Shaiba, Mesopotamia;
British casualties were 700; the Turkish forces numbered 15,000, their
loses being so heavy that they fled to Nakhailah.
April 19--Reports sent to London state that the Turks have massed
350,000 men on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and have 200,000 more around
Constantinople; 35,000 French and British troops are at Lemnos Island,
off the entrance to the Dardanelles; Field Marshal Baron von der Goltz
has been appointed Commander in Chief of the First Turkish Army.
April 21--Twenty thousand British and French troops have been landed
near Enos, European Turkey, on the Gulf of Saros; General Sir Ian
Hamilton, veteran of the Boer and other wars, is the Commander in Chief
of the Allies' expeditionary force for the Dardanelles.
April 23--Troops of Allies are being landed at three points--at Enos, at
Suol, a promontory on the west of the Gallipoli Peninsula, and at the
Bulair Isthmus.
April 24--Observations made by aviators of the Allies show 35,000
Turkish troops are concentrated for the defense of Smyrna; they occupy
trenches extending from Vourlah to Smyrna, and are posted on heights
commanding the city.
April 26--British War Office announces that in spite of serious
opposition troops have been landed at various points on the Gallipoli
Peninsula, and their advance continues; a general attack is now in
progress on the Dardanelles by both the allied army and fleet.
April 27--On the Gallipoli Peninsula the allied troops under General Sir
Ian Hamilton are trying to batter their way through large Turkish forces
led by German officers in an effort to force the Dardanelles and reach
Constantinople; the French state that they have occupied Kum Kale, the
Turkish fortress on the Asiatic side of the entrance to the Dardanelles,
but the official Turkish report says the French were repulsed here;
Turks repulse Allies at Teke Burum.
April 28--Allied troops have established a line across the southern tip
of the Gallipoli Peninsula, from Eske-Hissarlik to the mouth of a stream
on the opposite side; Allies beat off attacks at Sari-Bair and are
advancing; Turks are strongly intrenching, and have constructed many
wire entanglements; report from Berlin states that the left wing of the
allied army has been beaten back by the Turks and 12,000 men captured.
April 29--The landing of allied troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula is
still going on; forces disembarked at Enos have advanced twenty miles;
11,000 Turks have been captured, and many German officers; British
aerial fleet is co-operating with the troops; Turks drive back Allies
who landed near Gaba Tepeh, and sink twelve sloops bearing allied
troops; the landing of one detachment of allied troops on the Gallipoli
Peninsula was accomplished by a ruse, 1,000 decrepit donkeys with dummy
baggage being landed at one point while the troops landed elsewhere;
Russians have dislodged Turks from Kotur, 110 miles northwest of Tabriz.
April 30--After hard fighting the British have firmly established
themselves on the Gallipoli Peninsula and have advanced toward the
Narrows of the Dardanelles; the French have cleared Cape Kum Kalo of
Turks; activity is renewed on the Caucasus front; Russians are advancing
in direction of Olti, on border of Turkey, and have cleared the Kurds
out of the Alasehkert Valley.
CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA.
April 1--British troops occupy Aus, an important trading station in
German West Africa.
April 2--Madrid reports that Moorish rebels have occupied Fez and
Mekines, and that the French hold only Casablanca and Rabat.
April 6--It is announced officially at Cape Town that troops of the
Union of South Africa have captured Warmbad, twenty miles north of the
Orange River.
April 7--It is announced officially at Cape Town that troops of the
Union of South Africa have occupied without opposition the railway
stations at Kalkfontein and Kanus, German Southwest Africa.
April 21--German troops in Kamerun have been forced by allied forces to
retreat from the plateau in the centre of the colony; seat of Government
has been transferred to Jaúnde; allied troops have forced a passage
across the Kele River; British troops have taken possession of the Ngwas
Bridge; French native troops from Central Africa have attained in the
east the Lomis-Dume line; official news reaches Berlin of the defeat of
a British force in German East Africa on Jan. 18-19 near Jassini, the
total British loss being 700; Mafia Island, off the coast of German East
Africa, was occupied by the British on Jan. 10.
NAVAL RECORD.
April 1--German submarines sink British steamer Seven Seas and French
steamer Emma, thirty men going down with the vessels; British squadron
shells Zeebrugge where Germans have established a submarine base, by
moonlight; Hamburg-American liner Macedonia, which had been interned at
Las Palmas, Canary Islands, but recently escaped, has now eluded British
cruisers and sailed for South American waters.
April 2--It is learned that Chile has made representations to the
British Government regarding the sinking of the German cruiser Dresden;
Chile says she was blown up by her own crew in Chilean waters after
bombardment by British squadron, and when the Chilean Government was on
the point of interning her; three British trawlers are sunk by the
German submarine U-10, whose Captain, the fishermen state, told them he
has "orders to sink everything"; Norwegian sailing ship Nor is burned by
a German submarine, the submarine Captain giving the Nor's Captain a
document saying she was destroyed for carrying contraband; Dutch steamer
Schieland is blown up off the English coast, presumably by a mine;
British steamer Lockwood is sunk by a German submarine off Devonshire
coast, the crew escaping.
April 3--Forts at entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna are bombarded by allied
fleet; French fishing vessel is sunk by a German submarine, her crew
escaping; Berlin estimates state that from Aug. 1 to March 1 a tonnage
of 437,879 in British merchant ships and auxiliary cruisers has been
destroyed.
April 4--German submarine sinks British steamer City of Bremen in the
English Channel, four of the crew being drowned; German submarine sinks
a Russian bark in the English Channel; three German steamers are sunk by
mines in the Baltic, 25 men being drowned; Turkish armored cruiser
Medjidieh is sunk by a Russian mine; it is learned that an Austrian
steamer with 600 tons of ammunition aboard was blown up by a mine in the
Danube on March 30, 35 of the crew being drowned; it is learned that the
American steamer Greenbriar, lost in the North Sea a few days ago, was
sunk by a mine.
April 5--A Turkish squadron sinks two Russian ships; Turkish batteries
off Kum Kale sink an allied mine sweeper; an Athens report says that the
British battleship Lord Nelson, recently stranded in the Dardanelles,
has been destroyed by the fire of the Turkish shore guns; British
trawler Agantha is sunk by a German submarine off Longstone, the crew
being subjected to rifle fire from the submarine while taking to the
boats; German submarine U-31 sinks British steamer Olivine and Russian
bark Hermes, the crews being saved; German Baltic fleet, returning from
bombardment of Libau, is cut off from its base by German mines, which
have gone adrift in large numbers because of a storm.
April 6--A German submarine is entangled in at net off Dover specially
designed for the catching of submarines; Stockholm reports that the
Swedish steamer England has been seized by the Germans in the Baltic and
taken to a German port.
April 7--United States Government, at request of Commander Thierichens,
takes over for internment the German converted cruiser Prinz Eitel
Friedrich, to hold her until the end of the war; German Admiralty admits
loss of submarine U-9, already reported by the British as being sunk.
April 8--French sailing ship Chateaubriand is sunk by a German submarine
off the Isle of Wight, the crew being saved.
April 9--British and French cruisers have taken from Italian mail
steamers 2,300 bags of outgoing German mail, and it is planned to seize
bags from abroad intended for Germany.
April 10--British steamer Harpalyce, which made one voyage as a relief
ship with supplies for the Belgians donated by residents of New York
State, is sunk in the North Sea by a submarine; some of her crew are
missing.
April 11--German auxiliary cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm anchors at Newport
News, needing coal and provisions; Captain Thierfelder reports that his
ship has sunk fourteen ships of the Allies and one Norwegian ship;
allied fleet is bombarding Dardanelles forts from the Gulf of Saros;
French steamer Frederic Franck, after being torpedoed by a German
submarine in the English Channel, is towed to Plymouth.
April 12--United States State Department is notified by Ambassador Page
that the British Government will settle the case of the American
steamship Wilhelmina in accordance with the contentions of the owners of
the cargo; the British state that they will requisition and pay for the
cargo, and the owners of both ship and cargo will be reimbursed for the
delay caused in sending the case before a prize court; Captains of the
American steamers Navajo, Joseph W. Fordney, and Llama appeal to
American Embassy at London to procure their release from British marine
authorities at Kirkwall; British collier Newlyn is damaged by an
unexplained explosion off the Scilly Islands, but makes port; a French
battleship, assisted by French aeroplanes, bombards the Turkish
encampment near Gaza.
April 13--British torpedo boat destroyer Renard dashes up the
Dardanelles over ten miles at high speed on a scouting expedition.
April 14--Allied patrol ships bombard Dardanelles forts; a cruiser and a
destroyer are struck by shells from the forts; Dutch steamer Katwyk,
from Baltimore to Rotterdam with a cargo of corn consigned to the
Netherlands Government, is blown up and sunk while at anchor seven miles
west of the North Hinder Lightship in the North Sea; crew is saved;
indignation expressed in Holland; Swedish steamer Folke is sunk by a
mine or torpedo off Peterhead; thirty-one new cases of beri-beri have
developed among the crew of the Kronprinz Wilhelm since her arrival at
Newport News.
April 15--"White Paper" made public in London shows that Great Britain
has made "a full and ample apology" to the Government of Chile for the
sinking in Chilean territorial waters last month of the German cruiser
Dresden, the internment of which had already been ordered by the
Maritime Governor of Cumberland Bay when the British squadron attacked
her; two allied battleships enter the bay at Enos and with shells
destroy the Turkish camp there; Russian squadron bombards Kara-Burum,
inside the Tchatalja lines; British steamer Ptarmigan is sunk by a
German submarine in the North Sea, eight of the crew being lost;
tabulation made in London of statistics of maritime losses shows that
England and her allies have sunk, captured, or detained 543 ships
belonging to Germany and her allies, while Germany and her allies have
sunk, captured, or detained 265 ships belonging to England, France,
Belgium, and Russia.
April 16--French cruiser bombards fortifications of El-Arish, near the
boundary of Egypt and Palestine, as well as detachments of Turkish
troops concentrated near that place; one cruiser bombards the
Dardanelles forts; Russian squadron bombards Eregli and Sunguldaik, in
Asia Minor, on the Black Sea.
April 17--Two British ships drive ashore and destroy a Turkish torpedo
boat which attacked a British transport in the Aegean Sea; it is
reported that 100 men on the transport were drowned; Greek steamer
Ellispontis, en route for Montevidio from Holland, is torpedoed in the
North Sea, the crew being saved.
April 18--British submarine E-15 runs ashore in the Dardanelles, the
crew being captured by Turks; two British picket boats, under a heavy
fire, then torpedo and destroy the stranded vessel to prevent her being
used by the Turks.
April 19--Russian Black Sea torpedo boat squadron bombards the coast of
Turkey in Asia, between Archav and Artaschin; provision stores and
barracks are destroyed; many Turkish coastwise vessels laden with
ammunition and supplies are sunk; six allied torpedo boats fail in an
attempt to penetrate the Dardanelles.
April 20--Two Turkish torpedo boat destroyers are blown up while passing
through a mine belt laid by the Russians across the entrance to the
Bosporus.
April 21--British freighter Ruth is sunk by a German submarine in the
North Sea, crew being rescued.
April 22--M. Augagneur, French Minister of Marine, and Winston Spencer
Churchill, First Lord of the British Admiralty, hold a conference in the
north of France as to the best means of forcing the Dardanelles; an
Anglo-French fleet is sighted off the lower coast of Norway; German
Admiralty gives out a statement that British submarines have been
repeatedly sighted lately in Heligoland Bay and that one of these
submarines was sunk on April 17; all steamship communication between the
British Isles and Holland is suspended; allied fleet bombards
Dardanelles forts and points on the west coast of Gallipoli; British
trawler St. Lawrence is sunk in the North Sea by a German submarine, two
of the crew being lost; a German submarine has taken the British steam
trawler Glancarse into a German port from a point off Aberdeen; British
trawler Fuschia brings into Aberdeen the crew of the trawler Envoy,
which was shelled by a German submarine.
April 23--German Admiralty announces that the German high seas fleet has
recently cruised repeated in the North Sea, advancing into English
waters without meeting British ships; the British Official Gazette
announces a blockade, beginning at midnight, of Kamerun, German West
Africa; Norwegian steamer Caprivi is sunk by a mine off the Irish coast.
April 24--Finnish steamer Frack is sunk in the Baltic by a German
submarine; Norwegian barks Oscar and Eva are sunk by a German submarine,
the crews being saved.
April 25--Russian Black Sea fleet bombards the Bosporus forts.
April 26--French armored cruiser Leon Gambetta is torpedoed by the
Austrian submarine U-5 in the Strait of Otranto; 552 of her men,
including Admiral Senes and all her commissioned officers, perish;
Italian vessels rescue 162 men; the cruiser was attacked while on patrol
duty in the waterway leading to the Adriatic Sea, and sank in ten
minutes after the torpedo hit; England stops all English Channel and
North Sea shipping, experts believing that the Admiralty order is
connected with the desperate fighting now going on at Ypres; German
converted cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm, lying at Newport News, interns
until the end of the war.
April 27--Sixteen battleships and armored cruisers of the Allies attack
advance batteries at the Dardanelles, but do little damage; British
battleships Majestic and Triumph, damaged, have to withdraw from the
fighting line; the fleet is operating in conjunction with the land
forces.
April 28--Bombardment of the Dardanelles is continued by the Allies;
French armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc is damaged by fort fire; Captain of
a Swedish steamer reports the presence in the North Sea of a German
fleet of sixty-eight vessels of all classes.
April 29--British steamer Mobile is sunk by a German submarine off the
north coast of Scotland, the crew being saved.
April 30--Allied fleet is co-operating with the troops in their advance
on the Gallipoli Peninsula; British battleship Queen Elizabeth directs
the fire of her fifteen-inch guns upon the Peninsula under guidance of
aviators; a Turkish troopship is sunk; Zeebrugge is bombarded from the
sea; British trawler Lily Dale is sunk by a German submarine in the
North Sea; British Admiralty announces that the German steamship
Macedonia, which escaped from Las Palmas, Canary Islands, a few weeks
ago, has been captured by a British cruiser.
AERIAL RECORD.
April 1--British airmen bombard German submarines which are being built
at Hoboken, near Antwerp.
April 2--French aeroplane squadron drops thirty-three bombs on barracks
and aeroplane hangars at Vigneulles, in the Woevre region; French and
Belgian aviators drop thirty bombs on aviation camp at Handezaema;
allied aviators drop bombs on Mühlheim and Neuenberg, doing slight
damage; Adolphe Pegoud, French aviator, attacks and brings down a German
Taube near Saint Menehould by shooting at it; he captures the pilot and
observer, unhurt.
April 3--French bring down a German aeroplane at Rheims, the aviators,
unhurt, being captured.
April 4--German Taube drops bombs on Newkerk church, near Ypres; twelve
women and Abbé Reynaert are killed; many persons injured; bombs are
dropped from a British aeroplane on the forts at the entrance to the
Gulf of Smyrna; the tenth Zeppelin to be constructed at Friedrichshafen
has its trial trip; the latest type is longer and faster than preceding
models.
April 5--French War Office announces that in the British raid on
Belgium, at the end of March, 40 German workmen were killed and 62
wounded; at Hoboken two German submarines were destroyed, a third
damaged, and the Antwerp Naval Construction Yards were gutted; French
aviators bombard Mühlheim, killing three women.
April 6--German seaplane is brought down by the Russians off Libau,
after dropping bombs on city, the aviators being captured.
April 7--Austrian aviators drop bombs in the market place of Porgoritza,
Montenegro, killing twelve women and children, and injuring forty-eight
other persons; many buildings are destroyed.
April 8--One Austrian aeroplane beats three Russian machines in mid-air,
all the Russian aeroplanes falling to earth.
April 9--It is reported from Furnes, Belgium, that Garros, French
aviator, recently won a duel in mid-air against a German aeroplane,
shooting down Germans.
April 11--Captain of British steamer Serula drives off two German
aeroplanes with a rifle; the aviators drop twenty-five bombs, all
missing; German aeroplane bombards an allied transport near the
Dardanelles.
April 12--German dirigible drops seven bombs on Nancy, doing slight
damage.
April 13--French aviators bombard military hangars at Vigneulles, and
disperse, near there, a German battalion on the march; according to a
report printed in a Swiss newspaper, Count Zeppelin's secretary told
this journal's correspondent that Germany is preparing for a great air
raid on London in August, with two squadrons of five dirigibles each.
April 14--A Zeppelin makes a night raid over the Tyne district of
England; inhabitants of the whole region from Newcastle to the coast,
warned by authorities, plunge the territory into darkness, which has the
effect of baffling the airship pilot; bombs, chiefly of the incendiary
kind, are dropped from time to time haphazard; a Zeppelin, while flying
over the Ypres district, is shot at and badly damaged, coming down some
hours afterward a complete wreck near Maria Aeletre; a Zeppelin drops
bombs on Bailleul, the objective being the aviation ground, but this is
not hit; three civilians are killed; two German aeroplanes are forced to
come to the ground within the French lines, one near Braine and the
other near Lunéville.
April 15--Fifteen French aeroplanes drop bombs on German military
buildings at Ostend; German aviator drops bombs on Mourmelow; French
aviator drops five bombs on the buildings occupied by the German General
Staff at Mazières; French aviators bombard Freiburg-in-Breisgau, killing
six children, two men, and one woman, and injuring fourteen other
persons, including several children; three allied aeroplanes make a
flight of 170 miles over the Sinai Peninsula, aiming bombs at the tents
of Turkish troops.
April 16--Two Zeppelins attack the east coast of England in the early
morning, dropping bombs at Lowestoft, at Malden, thirty miles from
London, while one of the raiders is seen near Dagenham, eleven and
one-half miles from London Mansion House; one woman is injured and
considerable property damage is done; a German biplane flies over Kent,
dropping bombs, which do little damage; at Sheerness the anti-aircraft
guns open fire, but the machine escapes; a single bomb, dropped by a
German Taube on Amiens, kills or wounds thirty persons, mostly
civilians, while twenty-two houses are destroyed outright and many
others seriously damaged; French aviators drop bombs at Leopoldshöhe,
Rothwell, and Mazières-les-Metz; two civilians are killed at Rothwell; a
combined attack is made by one British and five French aeroplanes on a
number of Rhine towns; two allied hydroplanes fall into the Dardanelles
as a result of Turkish fire; Garros kills two German aviators in their
aeroplane by shooting them from his aeroplane.
April 17--French airship bombards Strassburg, wounding civilians; two
German aeroplanes drop bombs on Amiens, killing seven persons and
wounding eight.
April 18--Garros brings down, between Ypres and Dixmude, another German
aeroplane, his third within a short period.
April 19--Two French aerial squadrons attack railway positions along the
Rhine, and bombard the Mühlheim and Habsheim stations; at Mannheim huge
forage stores are set on fire; Garros is captured by the Germans at
Ingelmunster, Belgium, after being forced to alight there; German
aeroplanes drop bombs in Belfort; Germans repulse French aeroplanes at
Combres.
April 20--German aeroplane squadron drops 100 bombs at Bialystok,
Russian Poland, killing and wounding civilians; a Zeppelin bombards the
town of Oicchanow, doing slight damage; the Rhine from Basle to
Mülhausen is the scene of a considerable engagement lasting two hours,
in which two French and two British aeroplanes attack a larger German
squadron and are driven off; returning with reinforcements and now
outnumbering the German squadron, they drive off the Germans; no report
as to losses; reports from Swiss towns around Lake Constance on which
the Zeppelin works are situated, state that Emperor William has ordered
much larger Zeppelins constructed; each of the new Zeppelins, it is
stated, will cost over $600,000, and will throw bombs double the size of
those now used.
April 21--French aeroplanes bombard headquarters of General von Etrantz
in the Woevre; French aeroplanes bombard German convoys in the Grand
Duchy of Baden and an electric power plant at Loerrach, at the latter
place injuring civilians; British aviators drop bombs on the German
aviation harbor and shed at Ghent; Russian aeroplanes bombard the
railroad station at Soldau.
April 23--Russian aeroplanes drop bombs on Mlawa and Plock, and bombard
the German aviation field near Sanniky; Germans bring down a Russian
aeroplane at Czernowitz, the pilot being killed.
April 24--French aviator drops two bombs on Fort Kastro, at Smyrna,
killing several soldiers; official German statement says a British
battleship was badly damaged in the recent Zeppelin attack on the Tyne
region.
April 25--Aviators of the Allies are making daily attacks on the Germans
between the Yser and Bruges; a Zeppelin throws bombs on the town of
Sialvstok.
April 26--A Zeppelin drops on Calais large bombs of a new type, with
greatly increased power; thirty civilians are injured; a Russian
aeroplane drops three bombs on Czernowitz, injuring children.
April 27--British airmen bombard eight towns in Belgium occupied by
Germans; Russians damage and capture two Austro-German aeroplanes;
Russian aviators drop bombs on German aeroplanes at the aviation field
near Sanniky; French aviators drop bombs at Bollweiler, Chambley, and
Arnaville; French airman throws six bombs on the Mauser rifle factory at
Oberdorf.
April 28--A German aeroplane throws three bombs at the American tanker
Cushing, owned by the Standard Oil Company, the attack taking place in
daylight in the North Sea; the ship was flying the American flag;
splinters from one bomb strike the vessel and tear the American ensign,
according to the report of the Cushing's Captain; Russian giant
aeroplane drops 1,200 pounds of explosives on the East Prussian town of
Neidenburg; allied airmen drop bombs on Haltingen, Southern Baden;
German aeroplane drops bombs on Nancy, three persons being killed and
several injured; allied airmen bombard Oberdorf, killing six civilians
and wounding seven; six allied aeroplanes bombard the hangars of
dirigibles at Friedrichshafen; French aviators drop bombs on the station
and a factory at Leopoldshöhe; French capture or destroy four German
aeroplanes.
April 29--Three German aeroplanes drop bombs on Belfort, four workmen
being wounded; German aeroplanes bombard Epernay.
April 30--A Zeppelin drops bombs on Ipswich and other places in Suffolk;
no lives are reported lost, but a number of dwellings are set on fire;
four Zeppelins are sighted off Wells, Norfolk; they change their course
and head out to sea; French airship bombards the railway in the region
of Valenciennes; a destroyed French aeroplane falls within the German
lines; British bring down a German aeroplane east of Ypres.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
April 1--Report from Prague states that something akin to a reign of
terror prevails in certain parts of Austria, people being punished
severely for trivial offenses.
April 2--Czech regiment refuses to entrain for the front; most of the
Czech territorials have been sent to Istria; Government issues appeal to
cooks and housewives to exercise economy in foodstuffs.
April 3--It is officially denied at Vienna that Austria has opened
negotiations with Russia for a separate peace, as has been persistently
reported of late.
April 4--Budapest continues gay despite the war, and night life goes on
much as usual.
April 11--The Foreign Office publishes a second "Red Book," charging
atrocities and breaches of international law against Serbia, Russia,
France, and England; it is declared that there is not an article of
international law which has not been violated repeatedly by the troops
of the Allies.
April 12--A law court at Vienna, in the case of Dubois, a Belgian, holds
that despite the German occupation Dubois has not lost his Belgian
citizenship.
April 14--Wealthy Hungarians are preparing to flee before the Russian
invasion.
April 15--Some of the Hungarian newspapers are discussing peace.
April 17--War Office announces that men between 18 and 50 of the
untrained Landsturm will hereafter be liable for military service.
April 18--Bread riots occur in Vienna and at points in Bohemia; Vienna
is now protected by long lines of trenches on the left bank of the
Danube; $14,000,000 is said to have been spent in fortifications at
Budapest and Vienna.
April 19--The food situation in Trieste is critical.
April 21--All Austrian subjects in Switzerland are recalled by their
Government.
April 22--Riots in Trieste are assuming a revolutionary character; "Long
Live Italy!" is being shouted by the mobs; it is reported from Paris
that the Hungarian Chamber at its opening session refused to vote the
new military credits demanded by the General Staff.
April 25--Anti-war riots continue at Trieste; there are also serious
riots at Vienna, Goerz, Prague, and elsewhere; the Austrians have
fortified the entire Italian frontier, at places having built
intrenchments of concrete and cement.
April 28--Railway service on the Austrian side of the Austro-Italian
frontier has been virtually suspended for ordinary purposes; all lines
are being used to carry troops to the frontier.
BELGIUM.
April 1--The German Governor General has revived an old law which holds
each community responsible for damage done during public disturbances; a
Berlin newspaper charges that American passports have been used to
smuggle Belgian soldiers from the Yser to Holland and thence to the
Belgian Army; the Pope expresses his sympathy for Belgium's woes to the
new Belgian Minister to the Vatican.
April 3--Officials of the Belgian Public Works Department resign when
ordered by the German administration to direct construction of roads
designed for strategic purposes.
April 5--Gifford Pinchot, who has been superintending relief work for
Northern France, has been expelled from Belgium by order of the German
Governor General; the reason is that Mr. Pinchot's sister is the wife of
Sir Alan Johnstone, British Minister at The Hague, with whom Mr. Pinchot
stayed on his way to Belgium; Prince Leopold, elder son of King Albert,
13-1/2 years old, joins the line regiment famous for its defense of
Dixmude.
April 6--Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State, sends a letter to
Cardinal Mercier inclosing $5,000 as a personal gift from Pope Benedict
to the Belgian sufferers from the war; the letter expresses the Pope's
love and pity.
April 8--President Wilson cables greetings to King Albert on his
birthday.
April 13--The German Governor General orders establishment of a credit
bank which will advance money on the requisition bills given in payment
for goods seized by the authorities.
April 15--It is reported from Rome that the German Embassy there has
asked the Belgian Government, through the Belgian Legation to the
Quirinal, whether, in event of the German armies evacuating Belgian
territory, Belgium would remain neutral during the remainder of the war.
April 17--The German Governor General has ordered the dissolution of the
Belgian Red Cross Society, because, it is stated, the managing committee
refused to participate in carrying out a systematic plan for overcoming
the present distress in Belgium.
April 24--A memorial addressed to President Wilson, signed by 40,000
Belgian refugees now in Holland, expressing gratitude for the aid which
the United States has extended to the Belgian war sufferers, is mailed
to Washington.
BULGARIA.
April 7--Travelers from Serbia and Saloniki are barred from Bulgaria
because typhus is epidemic in Serbia.
CANADA.
April 1--Canadians approve the anti-liquor stand taken by King George,
and prominent men declare themselves in favor of restricting the use of
alcohol in the Dominion.
April 10--Premier Borden tells Parliament that Lord Kitchener has called
on Canada for a second expeditionary force; the first contingent of the
first expeditionary force numbered 35,420, and the second contingent of
that force 22,272.
April 15--Parliament is prorogued, the Duke of Connaught, Governor
General, praising Canada's troops for "conspicuous bravery and
efficiency on the field of battle."
April 25--King George cables to the Duke of Connaught an expression of
his admiration of the gallant work done by the Canadian division near
Ypres; General Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia, cables the
appreciation of the Dominion to General Alderson, commanding the
Canadian division.
April 28--About 200 Canadian officers were put out of action in the
fighting near Ypres, out of a total of 600.
April 29--Four prominent German residents of Vancouver are arrested on a
charge of celebrating German successes over the Canadians near Ypres,
indignation being aroused among Vancouver citizens.
EGYPT.
April 8--An attempt is made at Cairo to assassinate the Sultan of Egypt,
Hussien Kamel, a native firing at him, but missing.
FRANCE.
April 1--A delegation of foreign newspaper men who have visited the
prison camps say they found the German prisoners well treated and
contented.
April 3--General Joffre is quoted as predicting a speedy end of the war
in favor of the Allies.
April 4--The second report of the French commission appointed to
investigate the treatment of French citizens by the Germans charges many
acts of cruelty; 300 former captives of the Germans tell, under oath,
stories contained in the report of brutality, starvation, and death in
the German concentration camps.
April 5--There are insistent reports that the French have a new shell
which kills by concussion; it is officially stated in an army bulletin
that a new explosive recently put into use doubles the explosive force
of shells of three-inch guns.
April 9--The General commanding the Vosges army has forbidden, with
General Joffre's approval, the use of alcoholic drinks in the district
under his command; the general movement to restrict the sale of
intoxicants is growing; the municipal authorities of Paris are preparing
a decree prohibiting the tango.
April 10--A court-martial acquits Captain Herail of the Eleventh
Hussars, who shot and killed his wife in November because she persisted
in following the army to be near him, in direct violation of orders
issued by the military authorities; the President of the Touring Club of
France states that the French people want American tourists as usual
this Summer; the Almanach de Gotha is being boycotted by the allied
royalty and nobility and a new volume, to be called the Almanach de
Bruxelles, is being prepared for speedy publication in Paris.
April 11--Computation made by the Paris Matin shows that the total
length of the battle front of the Allies is 1,656 miles, the French
occupying 540 miles of trenches, the British 31, and the Belgians 17,
while in the east the Russians are facing a front of 851 miles, and the
Serbians and Montenegrins are fighting on a front of 217 miles.
April 12--General Pau, who has been on a mission in Russia, Italy, and
the Balkan States, gets a notable reception on arriving in Paris.
April 13--President Poincaré leaves Dunkirk for Paris after three days
with the French and Belgian troops; M. Poincaré had a long conference
with King Albert; the War Office is organizing an expedition of
cinematograph operators throughout the whole French line; it is planned
to multiply and circulate the films.
April 15--An official denial of reports from Berlin that public
buildings in Paris are being used as military observation posts is
cabled to the French Embassy at Washington by Foreign Minister Delcassé;
vital statistics for the first half of 1914, just published, show that
the net diminution in the population of France was 17,000, while the
population of Germany increased in the same period, nearly 500,000; the
Temps says that the problem of depopulation must receive serious
consideration after the war.
April 19--A regiment of women is being formed in Paris; it is planned
that they wear khaki uniforms, learn how to handle rifles, and undertake
various military duties in areas back of the firing line.
April 22--General Joffre retires twenty-nine more Generals to make way
for younger and more active men; the Cabinet decides that children made
orphans by the death in the war of their fathers should be cared for by
the State; it is decided to appoint a commission to study the question
and decide what steps should be taken; "Tout Paris," the social register
of the capital, contains the names of 1,500 Parisians killed in action
up to Feb. 25, including 20 Generals and 193 men of title.
April 24--The famous Chambord estate is sequestrated on the ground that
it is the property of Austrian subjects; the Bank of France releases
$1,000,000 gold to the Bank of England for transmission to New York to
assist in steadying exchange; French official circles and French
newspapers are pleased with the American note to Germany in reply to the
von Bernstorff memorandum on the sale of arms to the Allies, and with
the expressions of German annoyance resulting from the note.
April 30--President Poincaré receives a delegation of Irish Members of
the British Parliament, headed by T.P. O'Connor and Joseph Devlin,
bringing addresses to the President and Cardinal Amette, and assurance
of devotion to the Allies' cause.
GERMANY.
April 1--Circular of the Minister of Agriculture says that through
economical use of available grain the bread supply is assured until the
next harvest; it is decided to hold horse races this season, including
the German Derby; 812,808 prisoners of war are now held in Germany,
10,175 being officers.
April 3--It is reported from Königsberg, East Prussia, that along a line
of 150 miles, and for a distance varying from five to fifty miles from
the Russian border, there is nothing but ruins as the result of the
Russian invasion; thousands of women and children are stated to have
been carried off to Russia; it is learned that spotted fever has been
introduced into concentration camps by Russian prisoners, but spread to
the German civil population has thus far been prevented; skilled
artisans, urgently needed in various lines of industrial work, are being
granted furloughs from the front.
April 6--Postal officials suspend parcel post service to Argentina and
several other South American countries and to Spain, Portugal, Greece,
Italian colonies, and Dutch West Indies; Press Bureau of the French War
Office gives out figures, compiled from official German sources, showing
that the Germans have lost 31,726 officers in killed, wounded, and
missing since the beginning of the war, out of a total of 52,805 who
started in the war; General von Kluck is recovering from his wound and
has been decorated by Emperor William.
April 8--Germans are mourning Captain Otto Weddigen of submarines U-9
and U-29, it being now accepted as a fact that the U-29, his last
command, has been lost.
April 9--Official list shows that on March 1 there were in Germany 5,510
pieces of captured artillery.
April 12--The Government is making reprisals for the treatment of
captured German submarine crews in England, having imprisoned
thirty-nine British officers in the military detention barracks.
April 13--Germany is detaining freight cars belonging to Italian lines;
semi-official statement says the passengers and crew of the steamer
Falaba were given twenty-three minutes to leave the ship and were shown
as much consideration as was compatible with safety to the submarine;
according to a dispatch from Switzerland, there is an alarming increase
of madness in the German Army.
April 14--It is reported from Switzerland that Emperor William last
month paid a visit to Emperor Francis Joseph.
April 15--Several thousand parcel post packages mailed from Germany for
the United States have been returned to the senders by Swiss postal
authorities, because the French and British Governments have given
notice that parcels addressed to German citizens in the United States
will be seized whenever found on shipboard; the Reichsbank's statement
up to April 15 shows an increase in gold of $2,000,000.
April 17--Ten British officers have been placed in solitary confinement
in Magdeburg as a measure of reprisal for the treatment accorded
captured German submarine crews by Great Britain; a letter from Dr.
Bernhard Dernburg, former Colonial Secretary of Germany, who has for
some time been in the United States, is read at a pro-German mass
meeting in Portland, Me.; it suggests the neutralization of the high
seas in time of war and makes various other proposals, which are
regarded in some quarters as a possible indication that Germany is
willing to discuss terms of peace; because of a shortage of rubber, the
Government is arranging a special campaign to collect rubber in all
shapes throughout the empire.
April 19--The second officer and some of the crew of the German
converted cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, now interned at Newport News,
reach Copenhagen on their way to Germany; it is stated in the Copenhagen
report that they are provided with false passports describing them as
Swedish subjects.
April 20--A conference of German and Austrian Socialists in Vienna has
agreed that after the war international treaties for limitation of
armaments must be agreed upon, with a view to disarmament.
April 21--All German subjects in Switzerland are recalled by their
Government; reports from The Hague declare that German Socialists are
trying to get a basis on which the war can be stopped; the soldiers at
the front are asking for flower seeds to plant on the graves of the
slain.
April 22--During the last few days Emperor William has been visiting the
German front in Alsace; he promoted Colonel Reuter of Zabern fame to the
rank of Major General; the Government has sent 2,203 more maimed French
officers and men to Constance, where they will be exchanged for German
wounded; university courses are being conducted by Belgian professors in
the prison camp at Soldau.
April 23--The Federal Council has extended until July 31 the operation
of the order which provides that claims held by foreign persons or
corporations which accrue before July 31, 1914, cannot be sued upon in
the German courts; many newspapers comment bitterly upon the American
note replying to the Bernstorff memorandum on the sale of arms to the
Allies by the United States; there is rejoicing in Berlin over German
gains near Ypres.
April 24--Dr. Dernburg, in address at Brooklyn, says that evacuation of
Belgium depends on England's agreeing to the neutralization of the sea,
free cable communications, revision of international law, and consent to
German colonial expansion; interview printed in Paris quotes M.
Zographos, Foreign Minister of Greece, as declaring that Greece is ready
to unite with the Allies in the operations at the Dardanelles if invited
to do so.
April 27--Copenhagen reports that systematic efforts are being made,
under instructions from Imperial Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, to buy
sufficient foodstuffs in neutral countries to last Germany for four
years.
April 28--The Supreme Military Court has confirmed the sentence of death
imposed on Dec. 29 on William Lonsdale of Leeds, England, a private in
the British Army, for striking a German non-commissioned officer at a
military prison camp at Doeberitz.
April 30--The subscriptions for three-quarters of the latest war loan
have already been paid; the payments reach the total of $1,687,750,000,
more than twice the amount required at this time under the stipulated
conditions of the issue; German Embassy at Washington states that the
Emperor of Russia has ordered prisoners of war of Czech or other Slav
origin treated kindly, but prisoners of German or Magyar race treated
severely.
GREAT BRITAIN.
April 1--Lord Kitchener follows the lead of King George in announcing
his intention to abstain from liquor during the war; the nation is
stirred by the drink question, and prominent observers believe that
anti-alcohol legislation will not be necessary; 25,000 women volunteer
to aid in making munitions of war.
April 2--Text is made public of a protest by Germany, transmitted
through the American Ambassador in London, against treatment of captured
German submarine crews; Germany threatens reprisals in the form of harsh
treatment of captured British officers; Sir Edward Grey in reply says
the submarine crews have violated the laws of humanity and they are
segregated in naval barracks.
April 3--Government takes control of all motor manufacturing plants to
accelerate the supplying of war material.
April 4--The Archbishop of Canterbury in his Easter sermon dwells upon
the national necessity for prohibition during the war; a band of the
Irish Guards, arriving in Dublin on a recruiting tour, is
enthusiastically cheered; John E. Redmond reviews at Dublin 25,000 of
the Irish National Volunteers; Limerick welcomes recruiting officers;
every man in the British Navy has received a pencil case, the gift of
Queen Mary, formed of a cartridge which had been used "somewhere in
France," with silver mountings.
April 6--Official announcement states that "by the King's command no
wines or spirits will be consumed in any of his Majesty's houses after
today"; George M. Booth heads committee appointed by Kitchener to
provide such additional labor as is needed for making sufficient war
supplies.
April 8--Official report of the bombardment of Hartlepool, Scarborough,
and Whitby by a German naval squadron on Dec. 16 states that 86
civilians were killed and 424 wounded, of whom 26 have died; 7 soldiers
were killed and 14 wounded; nearly all industries are working at top
speed; unemployment has largely disappeared; King Albert's birthday is
celebrated in London by Belgian refugees, many thousands of English
joining in the observance.
April 9--A "White Paper" is published giving correspondence which passed
between the British and German Foreign Offices through the United States
Ambassador regarding treatment of British prisoners of war in Germany;
testimony which is included is to the effect that Germans treat British
prisoners brutally; John B. Jackson of the American Embassy at Berlin,
who, on behalf of the German Government, recently inspected German
prison camps in England, reports that prisoners are well cared for;
Captain and crew of the steamer Vosges, sunk in March by a German
submarine, are rewarded for persistent attempt to escape the submarine;
in party circles it is accepted as a fact that there will be no general
election this year, and that the terms of the present Members of
Parliament will be extended.
April 11--A great campaign to obtain recruits for Kitchener's new army
is begun in London, it being planned to hold 1,500 meetings.
April 12--Government is now transferring men from the working forces of
municipalities to factories, making munitions of war.
April 13--Official announcement states that 33,000 women had registered
themselves up to the end of March for war service, as being ready to
undertake various forms of labor in England usually done by men; the
Foreign Office cables the United States State Department, asking that an
investigation be started at once of Berlin reports that thirty-nine
British officers have been put in a military prison as a measure of
reprisal for England's declining to accord full privileges to German
submarine prisoners; a serious explosion occurs at Lerwick, Shetland, in
which many persons are killed; Lerwick is one of the chief stations in
Scotland for the Royal Naval Reserve.
April 14--Report from Field Marshal French on the Neuve Chapelle fight
is made public; the British losses were 12,811 in killed, wounded, and
missing; German losses are declared to have been several thousand more;
French says his orders were badly executed in some instances, resulting
in disorganization of infantry after victory was won; it is intimated
that British artillery fired on British troops; Government decides
against placing cotton on the contraband list; Government is making huge
purchases of wheat.
April 15--The total British casualties from the beginning of the war up
to April 11 were 139,347, according to an announcement in the House of
Commons by the Under Secretary for War; part of Kitchener's new army,
after six months of training, is going into camp at Salisbury Plain,
where it is stated that 100,000 men will soon be encamped.
April 16--The Foreign Office is advised by Ambassador Page that press
reports are correct which state that the Germans have put thirty-nine
British officers in military detention barracks as a measure of reprisal
for British action in refusing honors of war to crews of German
submarines; the London Times states that $9,500,000 in life insurance
claims has been paid to heirs of British officers thus far killed in
action.
April 17--Wages are rising and unemployment is decreasing.
April 18--Ten thousand Protestant churches observe "King's Pledge
Sunday," thousands of persons signing a pledge to abstain from
intoxicants for the rest of the war.
April 19--English Football Association announces that with closing of
present season on May 5 no more professional football games will be
played during the war.
April 20--Premier Asquith, in an appeal made at Newcastle to the workmen
of the northeast coast to hasten the output of munitions of war,
refrains from all mention of the drink question and declares that there
has been no slackness on the part of either employes or employers, this
statement being at variance with recent statements made by other Cabinet
members, who have blamed tippling on the part of workmen for slow
output; the Government has made an arrangement by which skilled workmen
now at the front can be recalled to England to work in munition
factories as needed; David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
says in the House of Commons that the Government does not believe that
the war would be more successfully prosecuted by conscription, adding
that Kitchener is gratified with the response to his appeal for
volunteers; since the war began, 1,961 officers have been killed, 3,528
wounded, and 738 are missing.
April 21--Chancellor Lloyd George states in the House of Commons that
the expeditionary force in France now consists of more than thirty-six
divisions, or about 750,000 men; the Chancellor also states that as much
ammunition was expended at Neuve Chapelle as was used during the entire
Boer war, which lasted for two years and nine months.
April 22--F.T. Jane, a well-known British naval expert, in an address at
Liverpool declares that the Germans tried to land an expeditionary force
in England, but the vigilance of the British Navy caused the expedition
to turn back.
April 24--An official list received in London of the thirty-nine British
officers placed in detention barracks by the Germans in retaliation for
English treatment of German submarine crews shows the names of seven
Captains and thirty-two Lieutenants, included being the names of
Lieutenant Goschen, son of a former Ambassador to Berlin; Robin Grey, a
nephew of Sir Edward Grey, and many sons of peers.
April 25--Jamaica begins raising money to send a contingent to join
Kitchener's army.
April 26--The "war babies" question is to be investigated by a committee
headed by the Archbishop of York, and a report is to be made.
April 27--Lord Kitchener, speaking in the House of Commons, scores the
Germans for what he declares to be their barbarous methods of conducting
war; the importation of raw cotton from the United Kingdom is
specifically prohibited; Lord Derby, in an address at Manchester,
intimates that conscription is to come soon; British War Office states
that medical examination shows that Canadian soldiers died in the Ypres
fight from poisoning by gases employed by the Germans.
April 28--Clergy oppose prohibition, the lower house of the Convocation
at York going on record as believing it would be unwise and would lead
in the end to an excess of intemperance; opposition newspapers and
politicians are criticising the conduct of affairs by Winston Churchill,
First Lord of the Admiralty.
April 30--Large numbers of protests from all parts of the country are
being made against the proposal of Chancellor Lloyd George to increase
the duty on alcoholic drinks.
GREECE.
April 4--After being repulsed in their raid on Serbia, a detachment of
Bulgarian irregulars makes a raid on Dorian, Greece; the Greeks repulse
them with machine guns.
HOLLAND.
April 1--More reservists are called; traffic between Holland and Germany
has practically ceased.
April 10--Government has handed to Germany a note of protest on the
sinking in March of the Dutch steamship Medea by a German submarine.
April 16--Intense indignation and resentment are expressed by the
newspapers over the sinking of the Dutch steamer Katwyk by a German
submarine; some of them talk of war.
April 21--It is reported from Amsterdam that Emperor William has sent a
long personal message to Queen Wilhelmina about the sinking of the
Katwyk, declaring that full compensation would be made if it is proved
that the Katwyk was sunk by a German ship; arrangements have been made
between the Dutch and British Governments whereby not only conditional
contraband, but also goods on the contraband list of the British
Government, may be given safe passage to Holland through the blockade
lines.
April 27--The forty-two delegates from the United States to the
International Women's Peace Congress arrive at The Hague; the congress
is formally opened for a four days' session with delegates present from
many neutral nations and from most of the warring nations, including
England and Germany.
April 28--Miss Jane Addams presides over the Women's Peace Congress, the
first business session being held.
INDIA.
April 12--Lieutenant Seybold of the Philippine Constabulary, on arriving
in New York, says that the Fifth Native Light Infantry, composed of
Hindus, revolted in Singapore on Feb. 15, while en route to Hongkong,
and nearly 1,000 of them were killed before the mutiny was quelled; the
rebellion is stated to have been fomented by agents of the German
Government in Singapore; seven Germans are stated to have been executed
for connection with the uprising.
April 27--Reports from the Straits Settlements state that serious
disorders are taking place in various parts of India, the effect
beginning to be felt of the Turko-German alliance and of the German
propaganda; riots have occurred at Cawnpore and in the Central
Provinces; a mutiny by native troops has taken place at Rangoon; it is
reported from India that the Ameer of Afghanistan has been assassinated.
ITALY.
April 1--There is economic distress in Italy due to eight months of war;
budget of the Government, which for years has show a surplus, shows a
deficit of $13,800,000 since Aug. 1.
April 5--Many Italian troops are being assembled on the Austrian
frontier; great excitement prevails in Genoa in consequence of a report
that a German submarine has sunk the Italian steamer Luigi Parodi, and
strong measures are taken by the authorities to protect the German
colony.
April 6--Owner of the Luigi Parodi declares the steamer has not been
lost.
April 7--The fleet concentrates at Augusta, Sicily, and at Taranto,
within a few hours of the Adriatic.
April 11--Demonstrations at Rome in favor of Italian intervention in the
war cause riots and collisions with the police.
April 12--An order is printed in the Military Journal directing all army
officers to dull the metal on their uniforms and sword scabbards; it is
reported that the Pope is ready to espouse the Italian cause if the
nation enters the war.
April 14--Indignation is expressed at the Papal Court over an alleged
interview with Pope Benedict recently printed in the United States,
Germany, and other countries, some of the statements attributed to the
Pope being characterized as false; particular exception is taken to a
statement, credited to the Pope, urging President Wilson to stop
exportation of munitions of war to the Allies; many telegraphic protests
on the interview have reached the Vatican from Roman Catholic clergy and
laity in the United States, Britain, and France.
April 16--Italy now has 1,200,000 first-line soldiers under arms.
April 20--Reports from Rome state that Austria is rapidly gathering
troops on the Italian border; Austrians have fortified the whole line of
the Isonzo River with intrenchments; it is stated that the German and
Austrian Ambassadors are secretly preparing for departure; Papal Guards
are enlisting in the regular army.
April 21--Sailings of liners from Italy to the United States have been
canceled; Council of Ministers is held, a report on the international
situation being made by the Foreign Minister.
April 24--It is stated in high official circles that it is becoming
increasingly improbable that Italy will participate in the war, at least
for some time to come; the Austrian Ambassador and the Italian Foreign
Minister have a long conference; it is reported from Rome that Austria
has made further concessions in an attempt to preserve Italian
neutrality; nevertheless further military preparations are being made by
Italy; the exodus of German families from Italy continues; French
military experts estimate the full military strength of Italy at
2,000,000 men, of whom 800,000 form the active field army.
April 25--It is reported from Rome that Austria has offered to give
autonomy to Trieste; Italian opinion, as expressed in the newspapers, is
that Austria must yield all the territory occupied by Italians and must
yield not only the Province of Trent, but Pola, Fiume, and the greater
part of Dalmatia.
April 27--The Italian Ambassadors at Paris, London, Vienna, and Berlin
have been summoned to Rome to confer with the Foreign Minister.
April 29--It is reported from Rome that Italy and the Allies have
reached a definite agreement concerning terms on which Italy will enter
the war, if she ultimately decides to do so, and that she will become a
member of a quadruple entente after the war; Prince von Bülow, German
Ambassador to Italy, is stated to have failed in attempts to get Italy
and Austria to come to an understanding.
April 30--Belgian and French Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops have
united in an appeal to Pope Benedict for the Vatican to abandon the
attitude of neutrality it has maintained since the beginning of the war.
LUXEMBURG.
April 23--Grand Duchess Marie has sent an official protest to Berlin
against the methods of distributing food supplies, which is said to have
brought nearly half her subjects to the verge of starvation; she says
that gifts of food, money, and clothes have been sent to Luxemburg from
all parts of the world, but that only a small part of these reach the
civilian population.
PERSIA.
April 24--Confirmation has been received at Dilman, Persia, of the
flight of from 20,000 to 30,000 Armenian and Nestorian Christians from
Azerbaijan Province; of the massacre of over 1,500 who were unable to
escape; of the death of 2,000 in the compounds of the American Mission
at Urumiah.
POLAND.
April 22--It is stated in London that 7,000,000 Poles are in dire need
of food.
RUMANIA.
April 9--Artillery and supplies of ammunition are reaching Turkey
through Rumania.
April 14--The army, reported as splendidly equipped, is ready for
instant action.
RUSSIA.
April 1--Persistent rumors are current in Petrograd that Austria has
opened negotiations for a separate peace; General Ruzsky, who won praise
for his conduct of the Galician campaign, taking Lemberg, and also for
his success at Przasnysz, retires because of ill-health.
April 3--General Alexiev is appointed Commander in Chief of the army on
the northern front in place of General Ruzsky; it is officially
announced that Colonel Miassoydoff, attached as interpreter to the staff
of the Tenth Army, which was badly defeated in the Mazurian Lake
region, has been shot as a German spy.
April 4--Petrograd reports that the Russians have taken 260,000
prisoners on the Carpathian front since Jan. 21.
April 7--All towns in Russian Poland are given local municipal
self-government; Petrograd reports that during the celebration of
Easter, the greatest of Russian festivals, there has been an entire
absence of drunkenness.
April 14--Imperial order calls up for training throughout the empire all
men from twenty to thirty-five not summoned before; it is stated that
the call will ultimately almost double the Russian strength; the men
summoned are all untrained.
April 17--The General Anzeiger of Duisburg, Rhenish Prussia, says it
learns "from an absolutely unimpeachable source" that the reported
sickness of Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander in Chief of the Russian
forces, was due to a shot in the abdomen fired by the late General Baron
Sievers of the defeated Tenth Army, who is stated to have then committed
suicide.
April 20--Orders have been issued that Austrian officers who are
prisoners of war shall no longer be allowed to retain their swords, as a
penalty for the cutting out of the tongue of a captured Russian scout
who refused to betray the Russian position.
April 21--As a substitute for vodka shops there have been erected in
open places in communities throughout Russia "people's palaces," where
the public may gather for entertainment and instruction; in the
Government of Poltava alone 300 of these recreative centres have been
opened or are projected.
April 22--Details of an $83,000,000 order for shrapnel and howitzer
shell, placed early in April by the Russian Government with the Canadian
Car and Foundry Company, show that contracts for $21,724,400 of that
amount have been sublet by the Canadian company to American
manufacturers; it is also learned that the Russian Government recently
placed a $15,000,000 contract with American mills for miscellaneous
artillery; a letter from an American Red Cross nurse states that she and
other American Red Cross nurses were recently received by the Czar at
Kief, where he shook hands and chatted with each.
April 23--The Czar arrives at Lemberg and holds a council of war with
the Grand Duke Nicholas.
April 24--Copenhagen reports that the Czar has decided to re-establish
the Finnish army with the same constitution as previous to 1898; Grand
Duke Nicholas has been much impressed with the brilliant strategic work
done by Finnish officers serving with the Russian Army.
April 25--Army orders contain the promotion of a young woman, Alexandra
Lagerev, to a Lieutenancy; she has been fighting alongside male
relatives since the beginning of the war.
SERBIA.
April 2--American sanitary experts, who will work under the direction of
Dr. Richard P. Strong of Harvard, now in Europe, sail from New York on
their way to Serbia, where they will fight typhus and other diseases
devastating the nation.
April 3--Several thousand Bulgarian irregulars cross the Serbian
frontier near Vallandovo, surprising and killing the Serbian guards;
Serbian reinforcements, after an all-day fight, repulse and scatter the
invaders; Bulgarians lose heavily.
April 4--Serbia protests to Bulgaria because of the raid, which is said
to be the fifth of the kind since the beginning of the war; the
Bulgarian Minister to Rome says that the raid is the work of Macedonian
revolutionists in Serbia.
April 6--Bulgarian Government disclaims responsibility for the raid on
Serbia; it is stated that the invasion was initiated by Turks among the
inhabitants of that part of Macedonia included in Serbia; Serbians are
not satisfied and say that more attacks are being planned on Bulgarian
soil, with the object of cutting off supplies from the Serbian Army.
April 10--Disease conditions are growing worse and the percentage of
deaths from typhus is very high; 107 Serbian doctors out of 452 have
died of typhus; the municipality of Uskub decides to name its finest
street after Lady Ralph Paget, who has been working in Serbia with the
Red Cross and is now convalescing from a resultant illness.
April 16--Rockefeller Foundation War Relief Commission's first
installment of a report on Serbia states that disease is spreading all
over the country; there are more than 25,000 cases of typhus, while
other fevers are also epidemic; cholera is expected with the warm
weather; the nation is declared unable to aid itself.
April 17--The Government submits to Parliament a new army credit of
$40,000,000.
April 21--Two invasions into Serbian territory are made by Bulgarian
irregulars.
April 28--Serbia holds 60,000 Austrian prisoners.
SWEDEN.
April 7--Sweden makes a strong protest to Germany against seizure of the
Swedish steamer England.
SWITZERLAND.
April 13--German shells fall upon Swiss territory for the third time
since the war began, according to a Delemont newspaper; the shots were
intended for the French, but the aim was bad and they dropped near the
town of Beurnevesain.
TURKEY.
April 1--Troops are being concentrated at Adrianople as a precaution in
case war starts with Bulgaria.
April 2--Both the Turkish and Russian Ambassadors to Italy deny a report
that Turkey is seeking a separate peace.
April 7--Field Marshal von der Goltz, in an interview in Vienna, says
that Turkey is well prepared for war; she has 1,250,000 well-trained men
and several hundred thousand reserves; the Sultan gives an interview at
Constantinople to American newspaper men; he deplores "unjust" attack of
Allies on the Dardanelles, adding that he does not believe the strait
can be forced.
April 15--Pillage and murder are reported to be rife in villages and
smaller towns of the littoral near Smyrna; lives of Christians are in
danger.
April 18--Enver Pasha, War Minister and Generalissimo of the Turkish
Army, in a newspaper interview lays the blame for Turkey's participation
in the war on Russia and England; he says Turkey has a well-prepared
army of 2,000,000.
April 24--Refugees who have reached the Russian line near Tiflis,
Transcaucasia, report that widespread massacres of Armenians are being
carried out by Mohammedans; they state that all the inhabitants of ten
villages near Van, in Armenia, Asiatic Turkey, have been killed.
April 27--An appeal for relief of Armenian Christians in Turkey is made
to the Turkish Government by the United States; a plot is discovered to
blow up the council chamber in the Ministry of War at Constantinople
during a session of the War Council.
April 29--The War Minister has called all available men to arms; Kurds
are massacring Christians in Armenia.
UNITED STATES.
April 1--Secretary Bryan orders an inquiry into the circumstances of the
arrest by the authorities in Paris of Raymond Rolfe Swoboda, stated to
be an American citizen, held in connection with the recent fire on the
French liner La Touraine in mid-ocean; the State Department is
investigating the death of Leon Chester Thrasher of Hardwick, Mass., who
was lost when the British steamer Falaba was sunk by a German submarine;
information is being sought as to whether Thrasher was an American
citizen at the time of his death.
April 2--The Government is informed by the British Government, through
Ambassador Page, that no trade messages can be sent over British cables
if they refer to transactions in which the enemies of Britain are
interested.
April 5--Text is made public of the United States note to Germany,
recently presented by Ambassador Gerard, demanding payment by the
German Government of $228,059.54, with interest from Jan. 28, for the
destruction of the American sailing ship William P. Frye by the German
converted cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich; Secretary Bryan makes public
the text of the identic notes recently sent by the United States to the
British and French Governments protesting against invasion of neutral
rights involved in the recent British Order in Council, establishing a
long-range blockade of European waters; the note insists on the right of
innocent shipments "to be freely transported to and from the United
States through neutral countries to belligerent territory, without being
subjected to the penalties of contraband traffic or breach of blockade,
much less to detention, requisition, or confiscation"; it is reported
from Washington that the reason for the order, issued a few days ago,
for the recall of the five American Army officers who have been acting
as military observers in Germany, is due to the growing feeling of
hostility to Americans in Germany, and the belief that it is wise to
withdraw the officers before they become involved in any incident that
might cause embarrassment in American-German relations; Dudley Field
Malone, Collector of the Port of New York, announces that he has
evidence of a widespread conspiracy to violate President Wilson's
neutrality proclamation through the establishment here of an agency to
supply the British warships lying outside the three-mile zone with food
and fuel; he asks the Government for additional warships to protect the
harbor's neutrality.
April 6--An official message from Berlin is issued by the German Embassy
at Washington giving an intimation that Germany would not regard with
favor the idea of paying damages for the death of Leon Chester Thrasher;
the statement says that neutrals were warned not to cross the war zone;
the German Embassy gives out a statement on the stopping of the German
merchant ship Odenwald, halted by a shot across her bows when she was
attempting to leave San Juan, Porto Rico, without clearance papers, on
March 22; statement refers to the episode as an "attack," and says "a
sharp fire" was opened, but the American official report shows that only
warning shots were fired.
April 7--British Government denies Collector Malone's charge that
British warships have been receiving supplies from ports of the United
States in violation of neutrality; acting upon a request of the German
Ambassador, the Government is making a new investigation of the Odenwald
case.
April 8--Secretary Bryan makes public the reply of the German Government
to the American claim for compensation for the loss of the William P.
Frye; Germany is willing to pay both for ship and cargo, basing this
readiness wholly on treaties of 1799 and 1828 between the United States
and Prussia, but under international law justifying the destruction of
both ship and cargo; Collector Malone says investigation shows that
charges that supplies have been sent to British warships from New York
in violation of neutrality were part of a plot to involve this country
in trouble with England.
April 11--Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, makes public a
memorandum addressed to the United States Government and delivered
several days ago, charging in effect that the United States is violating
the true spirit of neutrality by permitting vast quantities of arms to
be shipped to England, France, and Russia, and characterizing as a
failure the diplomatic efforts of the United States to effect shipment
of food supplies to Germany; the memorandum intimates that the United
States maintained a true spirit of neutrality to Mexico in placing an
embargo on arms exports to Huerta and Carranza, and quotes a statement
attributed to President Wilson on the Mexican situation.
April 13--The Government War Risk Insurance Bureau settles its first
claim for losses by paying $401,000 to the owners of the American
steamer Evelyn, sunk off the coast of Holland, supposedly by a mine, on
Feb. 21; London reports that negotiations are under way for a short-term
loan of $100,000,000 to England by American interests.
April 14--Secretary Bryan announces that arrangements have been
completed with the British Government by which two shiploads of
dyestuffs may be shipped from Germany to the United States without
interference from British warships.
April 15--The text is made public of a letter written by Theodore
Roosevelt to Mrs. George Rublee of Washington, in opposition to the
principles advanced by the Woman's Party for Constructive Peace, in
which he says the platform is "both silly and base"; at a meeting in New
York of the Central Federated Union a resolution is passed in favor of a
general strike in those industries employed in producing munitions of
war.
April 16--The American Locomotive Company has practically completed
arrangements with the Russian Government for the manufacture of
$65,000,000 worth of shrapnel shells.
April 17--The Hamburg-American steamship Georgia is transferred to
American registry and renamed the Housatonic.
April 20--French military authorities decide to abandon the charge of
setting fire to La Touraine preferred against Raymond Swoboda, because
of lack of evidence.
April 21--The Government replies to the recent memorandum from
Ambassador von Bernstorff on American neutrality; the American answer
regrets use of language that seems to impugn our good faith, and it
restates our position; it declares that we have at no time yielded any
of our rights as a neutral, and that we cannot prohibit exportation of
arms to belligerents, because to do so would be an unjustifiable breach
of our neutrality; the State Department has cabled the American Consul
at Warsaw to report fully on the present situation of Jews in Poland.
April 23--The Telefunken wireless plant at Sayville, L.I., through which
the German Government and its embassy at Washington chiefly communicate,
has been trebled in power for the purpose of overcoming climatic
conditions likely in Summer to be unfavorable for the handling of
messages; Secretary Bryan is refusing to issue passports to Americans
who wish to visit belligerent countries in Europe for sightseeing
purposes.
April 28--Secretary Bryan replies to the German note on the sinking of
the American ship William P. Frye; the answer declares that the
destruction of the vessel was "unquestionably" a violation of existing
treaties between the United States and Prussia; the answer states that
the American Government does not believe the matter should go before a
prize court, as suggested by the German note.
April 29--Samuel Pearson, who was a Boer General in the Boer war and is
an American citizen, begins an action in Wisconsin aimed at preventing
shipment of munitions of war from the United States to the enemies of
Germany; a complaint is filed on Pearson's behalf under the so-called
"Discovery" statute of Wisconsin, to obtain information whether the
Allis-Chalmers Company and others have entered into a conspiracy with
the Bethlehem Steel Company and others to manufacture and ship shrapnel
shells to European belligerents contrary to Wisconsin law.
April 30--Directions are given by President Wilson for an investigation
to be made of the Pearson bill of complaint; German Embassy at
Washington publishes an advertisement in the newspapers declaring that
"travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her
allies do so at their own risk."
RELIEF.
April 1--American Red Cross sends 200,000 pounds of disinfectants to
Serbia for use in the fight against typhus.
April 2--Mme. Lalla Vandervelde, wife of the Belgian Minister of State,
sails from New York after collecting nearly $300,000 for relief in
Belgium.
April 3--Henryk Sienkiewicz, the Polish writer, appeals to the United
States for help for Poland; it is stated that an area seven times as
great as Belgium has been laid waste, 5,000 villages have been
destroyed, 1,000,000 horses and 2,000,000 cattle are dead or seized by
the enemy, and damage to the extent of $600,000,000 has been done;
Serbian Agricultural Relief Commission of America announces that Walter
Camp will take charge of Serbian relief in the colleges and universities
of the United States.
April 6--Australians have contributed $700,000 in four days for Belgian
relief, and measures are being taken to insure $500,000 a month from the
Australian States.
April 8--German Red Cross sends through Ambassador Gerard its thanks for
gifts from the United States.
April 9--Commission for Relief in Belgium announces the organization of
a New York State Belgian Committee which will work in co-operation with
the commission, Dr. John H. Finley being Chairman.
April 10--Major Gen. Gorgas, U.S.A., has been invited to go to Serbia
for the Rockefeller Commission to take charge of an attempt to stamp out
typhus.
April 12--The State of Oklahoma makes Belgian relief an official matter,
and the Governor has issued a proclamation calling upon the people to do
all in their power to aid.
April 15--Three hospital trains, each consisting of an automobile with
two trailers, have been presented to the Military Commander at
Frankfort-on-Main as a gift "from friends of Germany in the United
States"; Mme. Marcella Sembrich, President of the American Polish
Relief Committee, issues an appeal to "all America" for aid for Poland;
Paderewski arrives in New York to seek American help for Poland.
April 17--Donations to the American Red Cross total to date $1,415,000;
during the last week eight steamers have sailed from the United States
for Rotterdam carrying relief for Belgium; the cargoes totaled 55,000
tons, valued at $3,000,000.
April 21--Rockefeller Foundation gives out a report of its Relief
Commission concerning Belgian refugees in Holland; up to Feb. 22 cases
containing 1,386,572 articles of clothing, contributed by the neutral
world, principally the United States, have been delivered in Rotterdam
for the Belgians.
April 24--Report of the American Red Cross, covering the period from
Sept. 12 to April 17, shows that supplies valued at over $1,000,000 have
been sent to France, which got the largest individual share of the
shipments, and to Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia,
Serbia, Turkey, and the Belgians; the supplies have included 600,000
pounds of absorbent cotton; surgical gauze that if stretched in a single
line would reach from the Battery, New York, to Niagara Falls; 32,600
pounds of chloroform and ether; 65,000 yards of bandages, and 1,123
cases of surgical instruments.
April 26--A new British committee, with many well-known Englishmen on
it, has been organized for Belgian relief, King George heading the
subscription list.
April 27--American Red Cross ships a large consignment of supplies to
the Russian Red Cross at Petrograd.
The Drink Question
[From Truth, April 7, 1915.]
Sir Topas Port, in angry sort,
A scowl upon his forehead,
Relieved his chest, of wrath possessed,
In words distinctly torrid;
His brows were raised, his eyes they blazed,
His nose inclined to florid.
"Disgraceful state! That we must wait
For guns and ammunition,
Because--Great Scott!--men play the sot
And ruin their condition.
Low, drunken swine! If power were mine,
I'd teach 'em their position!
"I'd close the pubs and workmen's clubs--
What says that Welshman feller?
All drink tabooed? Alike preclude
Mile-Ender and Pall-Maller?
Good-bye! Can't stay. I must away
Post haste to stock my cellar."