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r- i- 11 by f as IS 1 te lu nl t i. it a a t- 1j I- at it y ig e- r , , for So ,uj to to !t. is ii ir r tne ie he e GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. ei a Furious counter-attacks by the allies toward Courtrai in an attempt to cutoff the German forces operating near Nieuport, Dixmude and Ypres are -w reported at Paris from the north of France and Belgium. More than tifty towns and villages have been wiped out entirely or ruined by the righting y which began witli the battle of the Aisne Sept. 12. Artillery duels have been a stirring feature of s; the hostilities in the extreme north. In these long- t range tights with heavy guns many non-combatants s have been killed. There is a confident feeling it f Flench military circles that the English Channel a a expedition of the Germans has failed and that from c now on the invaders must act upon the defensive, $ Capture of the Northern French canal system from g Arieux to the Oise river after hard lighting is an- t nounced at Berlin. This is expected to have mi- s mediate effect on the lighting about Lille, which j is considered to be decisive as to the result a. the campaign on the western front of the opposing j forces in France and Belgium. It was also stated i that every attack by tile allies on the Germans had i been repulsed with heavy losses to the assailaius j and that the Germans are making progress in Bel- j gium, though this is necessarily slow because of c the nature of the ground. The announcement of j the seizure of the French canal system follows: "After violent fighting the Germans occupied the northern canal system reacliiiig from Arleux. six t miles south-southeast of Douai, for thirty-six miles , in the direction of the river Oise. The canal is t now unused and is entirely dry, and the Germans i have turned it into a fortified position which is occupied bv strong forces. The canal has been the object of the latest fighting, as it is a highly important position in this part of the battlefield." The otficial announcement issued by the French war ollice says the positions occupied by the allies In Belgium and northern France have been uiain- tallied, in spite of violent attacks of the enemy. A dispatch from Duiikerque say that the British naval bombardment lias destroyed the town of , Sevie, which the Germans held in force. The house t occupied bv the German headquarters staff wis blown to bits. An Amsterdam dispatch dated Wed- i nesdav says: "For three days British warships have been bombarding the German troops who are trying to reach Nieuport. With the co-operation of the French artillery, the Germans were driven back on Middelkerke, where the invaders are intrenching themselves. The Germans today bombarded Nieu-wrt from Mariakerke. their attack being vigorously replied to bv the allies and the warships. The battle is no"t yet decided. Many villages have been shattered and are in flames;" Results along the RiiEso-Germaii battle line are all in favor of the czars troops, according to an otiicial communication issued bv the general staff at Petrogra.l. At no jioint on the vast battle front do the Rus- j sians admit defeat, but claim the troops are , energetically advancing from one end to the other. It is asserted that the German forces which Have . been menacing Warsaw- have been repulsed ahd are now in full retreat. Under Instructions from Em- . peror Nicholas, orders have been issued by the war office calling out the students of universities and high schools, who ordinarily are exempt from military service. Some 000 German officers are said to have arrived iii Turkey since the commencement of the war with siege guns, field guns, and ammunition. A German colonel, Weber Pasha, has taken over the command of the Dardanelles forts. Ail the fortifications of the Bosporus Have been overhauled and a large number of mines have been laid. The coasts of Asia Miiior. especially around Smyrna have been fortified. It is said that Austrian troops are being removed from the Austro-Italian frontier and sent into Belgium to strengthen the German right wing iu the neighborhood of the North sea. A Japanese squadron, it is officially announced, is seeking in the neighborhood of Hawaii the German warships which have been destroying merchantmen in the Pacific. The British foreign ollice has sent a note to all foreign iwwers for- mally notifying them of the governments intention to remove from the Suez Canal all German and Austrian ships which have taken refuge there and which have not already been detained on account of hostile acts. An otiicial statement given out at the Austrian general headquarters regarding ths fiihting in Galicia says: "We have gained ground in several spots in a heavy .stubborn attack, on the fortified positions of the enemy from Plotzyn to the highroad east of Medyka, while the Russian counter attack could nowhere penetrate. Last night our troops captured the heights north of Nizankowice. which followed in the capture f the villages located against the heights. . In the southern wing the main battle was fought by artillery. The modern field fortification system being liberally applied, the battle takes greatly the character of a fortress war. Yesterday we captured, in the Carpathians, the Jablonki Pass, trie last point held there by the Russians. There is now no enemy left on Hungarian- soil. In Bukowina we advanced as far as the Great Sereth." Acting Secretary Lansing of the state department announced that the United States iiad protested to Great Britain against the seizure of the American steamer Brindilla, now at Halifax, N. S., as unjustifiable and demanding her immediate release. It js reported that Gen. Von Trip and his staff have been killed in Belgium by the fire from British warships that are co-operatiug with the allies. Sir Ceeil Spring-Rice, British ambassador at Washington, was informed by the Loudon foreign ollice that the American tank steamer John 1. Rockefeller, seized by British cruisers, had been released. The ambassador made the following statement, based on a message from the London foreign ollice: "The John D. Rockefeller was detained because there was nothing, to show in her papers for whoni the oil ;slie carried was destined. It has been ascertained that the oil was destined for the Danish Petroleum company and that then; is in Denmark an embargo on exportation. Direc-;r tions were at once given for the release of the vessel." Gen. Obregon headed a commission which called on Gen. Carraiiza and invited him to attend the convention at Aguas Calientes and sign au agree-" ment to abide by the decisions of that body. Gen. Carranza declined the .invitation to. go personally or send a delegate. lie reserved the right to ai-prove or disa--rove the final acts of the Aguas Calientes convention, maintaining that the sover-eign power of the state rests will hiui alone until his successor as head of the government is elected. American troops seem sure to remain in Vera Cruz until the friction between Gen. Carranza and the Aguas Calientes convention is adjusted. Cavil ranza has referred back to the convention the ad-it ministrative questions incident to withdrawing the troops, although- it had instructed him to comply witli the proposals of the United States for the protection of clericals Mexicans, who had served Jen. Funston, and others. The state department at Washington has received an appeal to the American government and people against outrages committed against Roman Catholic priests and nuns by the army of the Constitu- tionalists in Mexico. The appeal was filed by the American Federation of Catholic societies. War risk marine insurance bureaus, similar to that recently put in operation by the United States. have been established by the governments of Bel-gium. Denmark. France, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Norway and Sweden, Gen. Brayton Ives, veteran of the civil war and for manv years a prominent figure in the Wall street financial district, died at the age of 71 years at his country home in Osslulng. lie was bora In Farmington, Conn. Prof. Hugo Munsterberg has withdrawn his resignation from the chair of psychology at Har- vard university "at the request of the authorities," and the incident is closed.
