President Poincaré refused to pardon Bolo Pacha, April 7, and the next
day the condemned man made a statement concerning other treason cases,
thus gaining a reprieve. He was executed on the morning of April 17.
Holland refused the Allies' terms for the transfer of Dutch ships and
demanded guarantees that they would not be used for troops or munitions.
On March 20 President Wilson issued a proclamation ordering their
seizure. The Netherlands Government protested in a statement which
appeared in the Official Gazette March 30. On April 1 President Wilson
issued an order authorizing the Navy Department to take possession of
all equipment and cargoes. Secretary Lansing replied to the Netherlands
Government in a statement issued on April 13.
Premier Lloyd George addressed the British House of Commons on April 9
on the military situation and the man-power problem. He asked that the
services of every able-bodied man between the ages of 18 and 50 be
placed at the disposal of the Government and advocated conscription in
Ireland. Leave to introduce the man-power bill was carried in the House.
The next day the second reading was carried, and on April 12 the bill
was passed. On the same day Sir Horace Plunkett submitted to Lloyd
George his report on the Irish Convention's plan for home rule. The
third reading of the man-power bill was passed by the House of Lords
April 17.
Mme. Despina Davidovitch Storch, a woman of Turkish birth; Baron Henri
de Beville, Mrs. Elizabeth Charlotte Nix, and a man who called himself
Count Robert de Clairmont were arrested in New York City on March 18 on
suspicion of being members of an international spy system working in the
interests of Germany. President Wilson ordered their deportation to
France. Mme. Storch died of pneumonia at Ellis Island on March 30.
Lieutenants Calamaras and Hodjopoulos, who landed in Greece from a
German submarine to act as agents of ex-King Constantine, and who
planned to arrange a spy system and establish a naval base, were
executed on March 30.
The Supreme War Council of the Allies issued a statement on March 18
condemning German political crimes against the Russian and Rumanian
peoples, refusing to acknowledge Germany's peace treaties with them, and
announcing their purpose to establish a reign of organized justice.
General Ferdinand Foch was made Generalissimo of all the allied forces
on the western front on March 28. A definite official announcement of
his appointment as Commander in Chief, with enlarged powers, was made on
April 15.