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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. I In- plot t blow up ships leaving American ports Willi ammunition for the allies, foe which five Oar-luaus are now mulpr arrest on charges ••! conspiracy, was engineered |u «-«.r,uaiiv l»v others of the German secret seiviif. savs a dispatch from New York. Ibis was indicated defiuitelv in a signed onfessi.ui made today |.v Uf tc— I Mttl lav. said to be a leader oi t|„. gVe. to ottw-ers of the Initol Stales mm nt s.,vi.-p. i„ tl,,. ,e«aeawT of Iiistrkt Attorney Marshall. m-sails of the confession prove beyond doubt in the minds of govern nt oltieials ihe part : ****rma" secret agents in pivparhBJC tlie pl.it : i"« also i furnish an iiitersting illustration of the ••linaii spy systems method of o|H*ration ami IjMiMlnaiion. a In- li oArial • •: the Cormaii foreign ew»ce said hi Berlin during the dav that the foreign •itni- l:ad m sim -ret agents ami thai lav had not v -en sent to this country by German authorities To stari his campaign of destruction. Bat what- var may be the- exact technical status et the Qar-uiaii se-ret servict — a IhhIv which, official statements to th - eontrary not withstanding, i ■; generally Ik--lievd to exist, whither it is under the control of the foreign office or of some other branch of the I imperial German government the fa.-; remains that lederal officials arc conviniid thai Kays statement proves the responsibility of the German secret agency for his actions. Inited States BBCMt service agents are continuing their search for the men who furnished Fay with the motley lor his conspiracy, in addition to tlie .4404 given to him when he started: fir they are confident that the large sums l.e mentioned are not altogether fanciful. From Par:* yesterday an important dispatch said: Premier Viviani offered his resignation as head of the heath cabinet laaay. forecasting the end of TIm- present i-ahinet. Aristide Briand. who lias held many cabinet posts and was premier at one time, was expected to succeed him. The entire ministry was lieiieved sure to he reorganised. The shake-up . as attributed mainly to general dissalisfacl ion with the governments foreign istlicy. especially in connection with the Uerniau diplomatic viotorv which brought Bulgaria into the war . n the Teutonic allies* siile. official announcement of a rei-on-structed cahinet was expected hourly. Best information was that it would be made up as follows: Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Briand: General Sccretarv. Jules Camhon: Vice-President „f Cabinet Without Portfolio, lie Froy einel : Minister of Justice. Viiani: Minister u" War. GalHeal; Minister ..f Marine. Admiral Lacazc: Minister of Finance. RJbol : Minister of Colonies. Iloi.inerge: Minister of Education and Invention the latter newly created. Painleve: Ministers Without Portfolios: Bourgeois. Combes. Denys, Cochin and Jules "nestle. A dispatch of yesterday from Pea body. Mass.. says: Fifty children were burned to deatli and as many more seriouslv injured in a tire whieh started in the St. Johns Paro. hial SoIi.h.1 shortly after the I | daily ri-ssioii liegan. Six hundred other children j had great difficulty in reaehing the street. The pupils were driven from their rooms and many sought to escape by the windows ami were killed or injured in jumping;. Noghhors raahe 1 to tin- srene and held coats ar.d blankets while the children leaiied into them. Sisters uf the school declared ihat manv of the children on the up|»er tl.Mirs had lieen unable to escape and had undoubtedly lost their lives. The heaviest loss of life was at tie-fnnt d.Kir. where tlie hall and stairway leading to the upper floors became choked with frantic children. Many were trampled underfoot and oveconie | I with smoke. Firemen were unable to push their way through the crush and were forced to tight the tire from ladders. The tire started from an explosion in the boiler-room. No reconstruction of the cabinet nor constitution of a smaller cabinet is being considered by the government at the present time, says the par-ramentary 101 respondent of the London Daily News. but it has Ihm-ii decided, he says, to give official recognition to a hitherto unofficial "inner war council or committee." Seven to ten ministers have heretofore taken Bart at various times in the dellieration of this body, which is now to he officially appointed with an exact definition of powers and principles. The committee, the newspaper says, will sit daily and will decide on executive acts of war. Such decisions, moreover, need nofe in future lie relered for approval to the full cabinet. An cxaniinati.nl of the famous So.-ilzi church in Venice, which suffered in the recent raid on the citv by air craft, shows that tin- first Itoinb fell in the left nave. It demolished two beams and pierced tlie ceiling, which was entirely destroyed by the second ImhiiIi. Not a foot of Til-judos maguifi-irnt fesco remains intact, ami it is considered virtually impossible to restore even a small part of the mastcrpii-co. Pope Benedict, himself a Ve-netaii. has written to the patriarch of Venice puh-liclv condemning the Austrian aerial raid on that city as unjustifiable destnn tion of churches which tlw- Austrians promised to spare after the bombardment of the Rimini ami Anemia cathedrals. None of tlie "crimm merchant vessels now tied up in American or other |iorts can be sold during the remainder of the war by its owner as a result of the iiassage of an act by the rciehstag on October 21. A report to this effect was received by ihe state department from Ambassador Jerard at Berlin. Tlie new Cerman decree is lieiieved by state department officials to be designed to conserve the German merchant marine for use after tlie war. It would prevnet the sale or transfer of any of the 15*0 Oerman merchant vessels now held in "American waters. That there are five hundred cases of leprosy in ihe Inited States was th:- startling discovery of the Inited States Public Health Service in a recent survev. according to a statement made by Dr. William A. Pusey before the Chicago Medical So ciety iu the Marshall Field Annex Building. Of this nunilier two hundred and seventy-live cases exist in "Louisiana, one hundred in New York City, fifty along the Mexican Imrder and live in Chicago. Dr. Pusey advocated a general leper asylum. Bulgarian farces aiming toward Nlsh have occupied the strongly fortified town ef Pirot. says a dispatch to the London Mail from Saloniki. Pirot is ihirtv-five miles east of Nlsh. It was the scene of an ini|Kirt:int battle between the Serbs -mil Bulgarians iu 1SS5. Since Sunday the allies troop trains have run without interruption between Iievgelii and Veles. This section, it is said, has ■em entirely cleared of Bulgarians. The Mnsteidam Telpgraaf hears from I.eige. Bel "iuni. that two more persons have been sentenced to ilcatli there bv court-martial. Their names are Pcaaa I-anuav and Andreas Oarot. Three others. Orial Simon. Amadeus Hesse and Constant Herek. •ilrcadv have lieen shot at I.iege. Nothing is known l-oiuWning tlie fate of Anns Benazet of Verviers. Belgium, who ""•"- sentenced to death by a Herman court-martini on Monday. K dispatch from Nome reports navigation in the rctic Ocean has closed for the season. A message "from Captain Louis Lane, who sold his i ower ohooner to Stefansson. receiving in return Stefans son"s small ixiwer boat North Star, said Captain I -mes Imat was frozen in on the Antic coast of laska and that he was making the thousand mile trip to Cordova. Alaska, by dag team. The formation of a supplementary air fleet of -. MK» aeroplanes, the special mission of B h:ch will in. to conduct a ceaseless campaign of destruction on t.ermaii factories, is the object of the new French aerial league. The league was founded by of prominent Frenchmen headed by former •1 "T" up Premier Louis Barthou. Ic.rgcs Clemenceau. Stephen Pinchon and others. The nisterdam correspondent of the London Daily Fvi.ress savs that the audience given by Linperor toAnibassad.r t.erard. which Is the hrst to William l" iven to anv ambassador of a neutral country In eight months, has created a sensation in Berlin, li is understood that the meeting was to discuss ,,ucstions in dispute between the Cited States and ionnany. Commissioueis Percy B. Coffin an.l Civil Service i .. P Gearv have filed suits for $."iO.OCt dam-• liiissell Whitman, president of the infMl TiTil m. iervi.e lief •■!.. Association. The suits are .Is .1 on tlM- letter Mr. Whitman sent to members council charging the civil service coin-mis-ione.s citv of to with having violated the e.vtl service *V the ! »ndon Express from Copen- A i.s|iai .snitch ii to Krupps have obtained a con !:,S,;"» hull. 1 Iw ■ erulM-ri f -r the Dutch govern . li Tl, esscls will Ik- built at Amsterdam and it..Ttcrda... under immediate .-ontr... of ,;erman encineers. "«* rit ,r Vmericin wf-Ten rlatM W*r,r*rfTiWh. desigiiei, to for the s -ldiers. s overcoats far J.-IVm.O 1 Tin pp -total v amount of the contract Is ."MM**.
