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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY With a twofold object in view the Germans have launched u series of fresh attacks upon the ositions of the allies west and north of the river Disc and along the Aisne The double purpose of the invaders are 1 To find a weak spot in the lines of French and British defending the territory immediately east of Amiens 2 An effort to divert the attention of the allies from the northern and southern ends of the JJ75mileIong battle front where the pressure of the French British and Bel ¬ gians is being steadily increased Near Lassigiy the Germans are attacking on the part of the line lying nearest to Paris Dispatches received in Paris from the northern sphere indicate that another battle is in progress for the possession of Lille Th lighting in that region is going on along the line of the La Uassee canal In West Flanders bad weathel still continues and the troops are lighting in mud that is knee deep in some places News of the Violent attacks in the eastern part of the Argonne forest indicate that the Germans are struggling haul to get wltliiu artillery range of Fort De Marre and Fort Chiosol two of the principal works defending Verdun on the northwest In the AVoevre district the Germans are trying to retake some of the lost ground around Illirey but they evidently under ¬ estimated the strength of the French forces in that region As the French advance yard by yard in that region earthworks are thrown up Dispatches received at Sofia from Constantinople describe the situation in the Turkish capital as increasingly alarming The local authorities apprehend riot only attacks from the outside but internal disorder The archives of the state have been packed ready for removal from the city and many of them have been sent away Preparations have been completed also for the removal of the treasury and locomotives are kept constantly under steam in the railroad yards of Stainboul to meet the possible necessity of couvqying the officials of the government to a place of safety at short notice Preparations have been made at Adrianople for the quartering of the state officials should eventualities cause the porte to de ¬ cide to quit the present capital An official state ¬ ment on the progress of the war given out at Vienna follows In the Carpathian forest lands and in the southern part of the crown land of Buko wlna regard for the safety of our advance troops obliged us to fall back on the principal mountain passes before an enemy numerically superior to our ¬ selves On the HungarianGalician front everything is quiet In the higher districts there is some frost ariu snow On the Dunajec river and in Russian Poland there have been some artillery exchanges Fighting has been resumed on the Servian front according to an official communication issued at Nish iservia The fighting in which the Servians are the victors according to statement occurred near Belgrade The Russian invasion of Hun ¬ gary through Izsok pass in the Carpathians and their rapid advance on Translyvanm through Cracow are attracting attention These combined operations arc the most gi ¬ gantic undertaken in the war In the meantime the Russians are held by the Austro 3ernians in western Galicia Field Marshal von Hindenburg the German commander in northern Poland can move but slowly because of the mud in his offensive operations against Warsaw A dispatch from Petro Petrorad rad says that aviators have observed German tie tillcryat the frontier railway stations which can ¬ not be moved on account of the softness of the roads It lias been suggested that the Germans in tended to use the Vistula for the transport of their guns but with the Russians in iiossession of the northern hank this obviously would be impossible The latest German official bulletin verities the public explanation that a further advance in the direction of Warsaw would be announced this week The Austrian official statement is featureless the bul ¬ letin mentioning only the efforts of the Russians lo continue their advance in the Carpathian moun ¬ tains and that artillery fighting is in progress on the front to the north and the south of the Vis ¬ tula river Italy has fixed Jan 10 as the time limit for Turkey to apologize formally for the Hodeida incident or suffer the consequences Italy will nat be satisfied unless the reparation includes the re ¬ lease of the British consul who was seized in the Italian consulate the punishment of the violators of i the consulate and a military salute to the Hag Tin Marquis of Crewe announced in the British house of lords today that it was the definite opinion of the admiralty that the battleship Formidable had been sunk by two torpedoes discharged by a submarine j The battleship Formidable was sunk in the English channel on Jan 1 with a loss of more than 000 1 men The British admiralty in its earlier reports said it wjis unable to state whether the disastir had been caused by a mine or a torpedo It is officially reported in Paris that Persia has sent an ultimatum to Turkey demanding that she withdraw the Kurd troops from Persian territory where they have penetrated from their frontier lines Two Rus ¬ sian monitors Jiave destroyed the hull of a 2500ton vessel and sunk it in the mouth of the Danube near Snlima with the object of preventing the navigation of the river toward Servia A Madrid dispatch saj the German auxiliary cruiser Otavi has been in ¬ terned nt Las Palmas Canary Islands The Otayi was reported on Dec at Pernambuco It is thought she was used by the cruiser Karlsruhe as a supply ship Further evidences that a German raid on England probably by Zeppelins with escort ¬ ing aeroplanes is expected was shown yesterday when it became known that Lord Roseberry acting in his official capacity s lord lieutenant of Mid ¬ lothian had issued instructions to the population regarding their action in case of a German hostile movement Civilians are sternly urged to ref from any hostile actions but to remain quietly In their homes and let the regular soldiers do tho lighting Other orders including the mobilization of the home guard are also included The Ger ¬ mans are conducting regular siege operations in their attempts to take the Russians second line trenches before Warsaw Their mass attacks have ceased and their troops working under the shelter of steel shields are digging advance trenches from which they plan to assail the Russians They are suffering heavy losses In these sapping opera ¬ tions The capture of another town in Alsace south of Sennhoim is reported by the French war ofllce The German communication neither affirms nor de ¬ nies the report saying merely that lighting is still in progress for the possession of the town It is said however that repeated French attacks in Al ¬ sace broke down under the German artillery fire The German communication mentions an engagement east of the Rawka river in Poland where it is said the advance is still in progress but the spectacular clashes of great masses of troops during the earlier part of the war have no parallels now along the Warsaw front Official announcement was made at Constantinople that the grand vizier and some members of the cabinet will leave tomorrow to review the forces at Adrianople recruited since the war began This may explain the rejrort sent from Sofia that the Turkish government is pre ¬ paring to ilee to Adrianople A Salonika dispatch says that the Turks are preparing to defend Con ¬ stantinople to the end The French foreign ollico announced that the Turkish cruiser Medjidieh had been badly damaged and two Turkish transMrts had been sunk by Russian warships and a mine mineGen Gen Villa plans to attack the Mexican Iwrder towns opKite Naco and Douglas Ariz witli the S000 troops that accompanied him north Half 01 this force has passed through Juarez en route to Casas Grandes whence the troops will move over ¬ land into Sonora Gen Villa explained his plans which he seemed to regard as friendly to the Amer ¬ ican government in a communication telegraphed to Brig Gen Scott chief of staff of the United States army who has been waiting at El Paso to confer with the Mexican chief regarding the cessation of fighting on the l order It is reported that Provis ¬ ional President Gutierrez is virtually a prisoner in the national palace at Mexico City at the will of Villa as the result of a suspicion which Is said to be amply confirmed that Gutierrez has been plot ¬ ting with the Carranzista element to join the forces in the field against Villa and Zapata In a battle today near Victoria capital of the state of Taniau lipis Villa forces were put to llight leaving many dead and wounded on the field according to consti ¬ tutionalist advices received in Nuevo Laredo Mex MexSir Sir Cecil SpringRice the British ambassador has notified Secretary Bryan that the British gov ¬ ernment without deciding the question of liability was planning to pay damages to the family of Wal ¬ ter Smith the American killed recently by Can ¬ adian militiamen while hunting near Fort Brie and to Clrirles Dorsch who was wounded at the same time The three soldiers concerned in the killing were placed under arrest yesterday yesterdayAn An attack on Villa troops in Saltillo was begun by about 15000 of Carranzas forces yesterdav Early reports from the battle said that hundreds had been killed or wounded The Carranza men were attackhfg from mountains about thetrfty md were pouring in a fire from fifteen cannon cannonWilliam William T Jerome has received from Attorney General Woodbury of New York an appointment as a special deputy attorneygeneral of the state to prosecute Harry K Thaw when he is returned to that state from New Hampshire HampshireBills Bills to carry out Secretary Garrisons recom ¬ mendations to add 25000 men and 1000 officers to the army and 8000 men to the coast artillery corps are to be taken up by the senate military com ¬ mittee an cpushcd for passage at this session of congress congressArrangements Arrangements between Great Britain Italy and the Netherlands have been completed whereby com ¬ merce to the latter two countries from the United States is expected to undergo a minimum of mol ¬ estation estationThe The French cabinet has approved a measure for submission to parliament making permanent the prohibition of the sale of absinthe and other simi ¬ lar liquors liquorsThe The American ship Carolyn Capt Mitchell from Bcnton Dec 14 with a load of cotton for Bremen has been held up at Esbjerg Denmark by the British BritishThe The cottonladen steamer Denver was detained twentyfour hours at the Orkney islands and then was permitted to proceed to Berlin BerlinThe The Quebec provincial government has decided to contribute 540000 a year to the relief of distress I in France caused by the war
