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EUROPEAN WAR DEVELOPMENTS. Although violent fighting between the allies and the Germans .is still going on in West Flanders, troop movements have been completely checked by the Hoods and storms which have turned the highways into swamps. During Monday the Germans directed a fierce attack upon tile allied line near Ypres. This was repulsed and the allies in tu:n assumed the offensive. Casualties in the allied ranks were heavy, but favorable progress was made. All reports from the scene of tightig in northern France indicate that the weather conditions for the last few days have been terrible. Heavy rain, falling continuously for thirty-six hours, has turned all the roads into quagmires, while the trendies are flooded and the lowlands everywhere are largely covered by water. Everything possible is bein done to make the troops comfortable, to prevent their being Hooded out of the trenches and to avoid cave-ins. The trenches are being shored and braced and the Iwttoms covered with brush and straw. .Meanwhile the artillery battle continues. A correspondent at Sluis. Netherlands, says artillery tire was again audible and that the Germans are renewing their efforts to cross the Yser near NieiqMjrt. A portion of the city of Cracow is in Haines and th- inhabitants have tied panic stricken before the advancing Russian army. Advices by way of Trieste say the investment of Cracow began Saturday. The Russian force, advancing uimjii the Austrian stronghold from the north, opened the bom-lrardment as soon as their big gnus were brought up from Miechow. The northern section of the city was soon in flames. Violent assaults upon all defenses are now being made by the Russians. The force advancing from the east, which has now passed Tarnow, is moving rapidly, and the capture of Cracow Is expected momentarily. For the Russians the fall of Cracow means the key to industrial districts of Silesia, striking a vital economic blow ijt Germany. The Venice correspondent of the Gioruale dltaiia sends the following dispatch to his paper at Rome: "Private tele grams announce that Cracow is aflame. Only the military remain there. The Russians are attacking the city from the northeast and the investment will soon be complete. One hundred thousand Austrian soldiers are shut up in Cracow." It is officially amiouced that the British government will seek a war loan of ,750,000,000. Additional taxes will have to be paid by British subjects to finance British war operations. Chancellor of tlie Exchequer Lloyd-George announced in the House of Commons yesterday. The new revenue-producing program will include an additional tax on beer, and an increase in the income tax rate to double its present standard. "It is estimated." said the chancellor, "that the hiss of revenue directly attributable to the war is 0,750,000. There are now more than 2,000,000 men under arms, and the country will have to find for the end of the financial year ,076,835,000. The deficiency will be ,097,055,000. The first two years of the war will cost ,250,000,000." The huge factory in Russia of the Singer Sewing Machine Company has been taken over by tin Russian government and will be devoted to I he manufacture of small arms. The factory of the American Phonograph Company in Russia also lias been requisitioned for the same purpose, while smelting concerns operated by Americans are now being used to make steel billets for military purposes. The Prince of Wales has achieved his ambition to go to the front. He reached Boulogne Monday on his way to join the headquarters staff in France, and was received by Prince Arthur of Conuaught. The Prince of Wales wished to go the front at the outbreak of the war. but Lord Kitchener would not allow him to go. The prince has joined the staff of Field Marshal Sir John French in France. Premier Asquith announced in the house of commons that the British government had decided l declare the whole North sea to be- in the military area. All subjects of the enemy found on neutral vessels, the prime minister also said, would be liable to detention as prisoners of war. Mr. As quith likewise announced that oil and copper would be declared contraband of war. Petrograd reports that heavy fighting has taken place in East Prussia, in the vicinity of Neideu-burg and Soldau, and the advantage is declared to be with the Russians. The German front along the Vistula extends for seventy miles to the southwest of Ilock. The advauce along the right bank of the AMstula has progressed less than twenty miles from the frontier. The general staff of the Russian Caucasian army lias issued a communication confirming the report from Turkish sources that the Russians had received a check near Erzerum. It says: "The march of our advance guard in the direction of Erzerum has ended. This march was dictated not by conditions of war but only to fulfill the task imposed on our advance guard." German headquarters gave out an oflicial report as follows: "Generally speaking, Monday passed quietly in the western arena of the war. To the south of Verdun and to the northeast of Cirey tlie French made several attacks, which, however, were unsuccessful. Operations in tlie eastern arena made further favorable progress, hut detailed reports are not at hand." The German cruiser Berlin has been interned at Trondhjem, Norway. It is believed she was acting as a parent ship to a flotilla of submarines reported off the Lofoden Islands. The only explanation for her interning is that she was probably doing scout duty and was cornered by British ships. The Berlin is a light cruiser of the Bremen type, of 3,250 tons. That the Geramn armies have stemmed the Russian tide all along the eastern frontier and have administered severe defeats to the forces of Emperor Nicholas in East Prussia and further south in Russian Poland, is the gist of an official statement issued at Berlin. M. Tzemovitch, a special envoy from Servia. has arrived at Petrograd to urge Russian assistance to his countrv, whose army has been reduced from 300,000 to 100,000, with consequent danger of the complete conquest of the kingdom by Austria. The British cruiser Glasgow, which was one of the vessels egaged in the tight with the German squadron off the coast of Chile on Nov. 1. has arrived at Rio de Janeiro. Tlie damage caused by the German shell fire is plainly visible. A naval battle is believed imminent in the Baltic Sea. Unofficial advices from Copenhagen declare the German .fleet in those waters is about to be engaged by the Russians. The Russian fleet has left Helsingfors, steering southeast. iBrlg.-Gen. Charles Filzclarence of the Irish guards has been killed in action at Ypres. He was connected with the family of the Earl of Minister, was 49 years old. and saw service in South Africa, where he was twice wounded. Dispatches saying the German auxiliary cruiser Berlin has appeared at Trondhjem, Norway, prob ably indicate, nceording to Loudon underwriters, that she is trying to escape from the North Sea to act as a commerce raider. Dixmude, including the villages in its environs, has been destroyed. Sunday the windows at Sluis were shaken by - explosions beyond the Franco-Bel gian border, where, it was reported, bridges arc being blown up. Gen. Christian De Wet. who headed the recent rebellion in the Orange Free State and the western Transvaal, has been wounded in the head. Among the Russian prisoners captured by the Germans in the battle of Kutuo were the governor of Warsaw and his .staff, according to a Berlin telegram.
