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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. The brunt of the great battle in Belgium aiid northern France has moved further south across the terribly devastated plain to Lille. In Armentieres nothing human can live. Lille, too, is burning and battered. The allies have been iu and out of the city and their shells have set the town alight in the western end. It is reported that the kaiser with a staff of strategists is directing the whin- wind attack from Tournai and concentrating everything on the great movement the object of which is Boulogne and the line of which is South of Hazebrouck and St Omer, where there is a more or less clear road to the coast. Two immense. German armies are reported to have returned to the attack on the French sea coast. One force of :!50,O0U is endeavoring to drive through the Dix-mude line to Calais. Another is battling the allies about Arras iu an endeavor to reach Ajbeville and Boulogne. German submarines arc being con centrated at Bruges for a raid on the English coast. Torpedo boats are being rushed in sections to Belgium on traius. The Germans have fortified the Belgian coast between Nieuport and Zeobruggc. The Germans are now concentrating their heavy artillery north of Arras, hoping that the big guns will accomplish what the massed attacks of infantry have thus far beeii unable to effect. The Germans have issued a new proclamation prohibiting an approach on the waterways at Bruges. Trespassers are warned that they may be shot. Heavy guns have been mounted on the sand dunes along tho coast from the north of Ostend to the Dutch frontier. Trenches also have been dug in the neighborhood of Heyst. The inhabitants of Ostend have been ordered to take to their cellars with live davs provisions. An Amsterdam dispatch says forty heavy guns arrived at Aix-Ia-Chappellc Thursday from Essen, destined for Arras. Sixty armored automobiles, with mitrailleuses, have left Alx-la-Chappelle for Ostend, according to the same advices. France has followed the lead of Great Britain and declared war on Turkey. Fighting between the Turks and Russians is progressing, and, as was the case at the opening of the war between Russia and Austria, each side claims the advantage. It is believed that the clashes are merely "feelers" preparatory to sanguinary fighting which is bound to materialize within a few days. The Anglo-French fleet continues to bombard the Dardanelles forts, but the Turks say the warships have inflicted no damage. British reports, however, insist that Forts Kumkaleh and Siddulbahr have been damaged. A dispatch from Pctrograd says: "The Russo-Turkish front extends over 100 miles., The first important fighting is expected to take place near Erzerum, Turkish Armenia. It is feared, here that there will be atrocities. Emperor Nicholas has arrived at army headquarters at the front in Russian Poland. Snow now covers the ground all along the Prussian-Russian frontier. Russia I claims that victory has been won all along the line on the Vistula and in East Prussia, and that the German army is in retreat. The British cruiser : Glasgow and the transport Otranto are now known i definitely to have escaped the German guns in the ! naval battle off the Chilean coast last Sunday. Intercepted wireless messages from the Glasgow stated that the Otranto was under her convoy. The. J messages were calling the British cruiser Good 1 Hope, but the latter did not reply. There is little - hope that Bear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock. i his flagship, the Good Hope, and the 000 men of c. her crew survived the engagement. A telegram 1 from Berlin says the kaiser, in a cabinet order, lias - promised a reward of 750 marks about 88 for r each machine gun captured. It is officially announced that the Japanese and British forces are closing in for the final assault on the German 1 stronghold of Tsing-tao. A dispatch from Odessa 1 by way of Moscow, says twelve Turkish and German " transports carrying coal have been sunk near r , Uzunguldak. on the coast of Anatolia. The Frencn official announcement says Thursday passed without a perceptible modification on the front. The fighting between Dixniude and the Lys continued without marked advance or retirement. A British . steamer, it is asserted by the Turks, was sunk off r Aivali, Asia Minor, after the crew and cargo had I been put ashore. Turkish cruisers have bombarded 1 the Russian fortifled seaport of Datum, on the east shore of the Black sea. It is officially announced . at Constantinople that one of the British , warships bombarding the Turkish forts at the western . entrance of the Dardanelles has been sunk. The Belgian government gave out the following 4 official statement: "The offensive force of the allies iu Belgium has made progress between Dixniude - and Dixschotte. The allies have reached the e road joining Vytschaete and Lessins, where the e German attacks were repulsed." The German government - bureau gave out the following statement: : "The German offensive northwest and southwest of Ypres in Belgium has made progress. The Germans - have gained ground near La Rassee. and in a the Argonne have taken an important position at t Debois Brulee. southeast of St. Mihiel." Grand 1 Duke Nicholas, commander in chief of the Russian forces in the field, has sent a telegram to Gen. i. .Toffre. commander in chief of the French forces, !. saying the Russians have gained in East Prussia !l the greatest victory since the beginning of the u war. According to information given out in Berlin, the Sheik-ul-lslam. chief ecclesiastical dignitary of r Mohammedanism in Turkey, lias issued a decree in !! Constantinople, saying that in the lighting with !! Russia. England and France, the duty of every I Mussulman is to ills faith. This decree has been I spread throughout the Mohammedan world and announced to the pilgrims at Mecca. A report from II Constantinople says that the ameer of Afghanistan lias sent an army of 170,000 men, with 133 - guns, to the Indian frontier. Carranza officials claim twenty slates out of the 0 thirty-one states and territories in Mexico in the 0 present conflict with the Villa factions which has s resulted iu actual conllict below Aguas Calieutes. The result of the bntjle has not been learned, but it is known strong forces have met almost at the city where a week ago an attempt was made to . adjust peacefully the factional disagreement. Russia has informed the United States government !f that because of mines planted to protect Russian territory, the entrances to the gulfs of ,r Finland and Riga have been closed to shipping, and 1 that mines have been placed iUound the Aland islands and in the northern part of the Baltic sea. I Not only did the men and women voters of California bury statewide prohibition on Tuesday ,T bv a majority that may reach close to 200.00ft. but. ir- thfv adopted a referendum amendment prohibiting , another vote on the question within a period of ,r eight years. A dispatch from Aguas Calieutes says that ten a thousand soldiers under General Villa yesterday repulsed and drove back an attacking force of Carranza troops twenty-five miles south of that place. The Carranza forces were commanded by General U Leon. Gen. Villa has notified the national convention at II Aguas Calieutes of his willingness to resign eom-piand - of his troops and retire to private life, if that is necessary to bring about the elimination of Gen. Carranza. Maj. Gen. Robert G. Kekewich. retired, who defended b- Klmberlv for 120 days axninst the Boer armies, r- was found dead in his ledroom in London ,n from a sejf-jnfligtep; PUO WQUHtl and tflp liead, 1, -I 1 1 t . . ; . i .:
