view raw text
GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. After fighting nearly all night Monday and Tuesday forenoon. Ihere was a lull at Agua 1rieta. hut a late dispatch from Douglas. Ariz., says the con iiicl was renewed in the aitcriioou of yesterday, the dispatches from there saying: Sharp machine gun lire liegan after noon. The Villa gunners were sweeping the center of Agua 1rieta from iiositions on the east. Maj. James A. ltyan. Thirteenth cavalry, received a relKirt that thirty-live women aud children had been killed in Agua Irieta, ami thirty-live women and children wounded. After lour desperate attacks on Agua Irieta, which kept the Carranza defenses blazing practically all night Willi Mashing guns and bursting shells, Gen. Fran cisco Villa drew on" shortly alter daylight today. Gen. I*. Ellas Calles. commanding the Carranza garrison. leporle-el the Villa forces in retreat, but at J-.:W his big Schncider-Gaiie-t guns reo]ieued a boni-fkardmeut on the Mexican town opposite. Losses of . :*■ Carranza garrison were reported by General Calles as forty -lire killed and seventy-live wounded, although unofficial reports stated his casualties were 250. Villas dead and wounded in large numbers strewed the desert around the barltedwire barricades of the Mexican town. The battle continued practically without intermission from 1:43 Monday .iliciiioon until six this morning. At three oclock, when Villa launched his first attack, ami the coui-bined lire of rifles, machine guns and cannon, it probably surpassed in violence the din of any previous Mexican battle. American army officers in the trenches facing the border declared it was the worst I hey had ever heard. Villa opened on the western trenches of Agua Irieta with every gun available in support of a final rush by his Yaqtii Indians about three oclock. Calles replied with every wcajeon in his garrison. Douglas trembled under the vibrations of the continuous crashes and concussions. Bullets from the Mexican side rained ii|m»u the American town, from the Iuited States army trenches at the border to |toints a mile or more from the line. Scores of women and children, most of them hysterical and weeping, cowered behind brick or adobe walls. The Iuited States custom house, which was tired on by a Villa machine gun platoon yesterday when liuis F. Taylor was shot iu the back, was again peppered by Mexican bullets. Its roof and | orclies were perforated in many places. The American trenches were plentifully sprinkled with bullets also. Among the wounded on the American side are: Private Harry Jones, company C. Eleventh infantry: hit while guarding a companv wagon near the army field hospital. Probably fatally wounded: Private James Tank. company D. Eleventh infantry, struck iu legs by a bullet that fell into a section of the trench a few foot from the custom leuse: Private Mile V. Whid-don. company A, Seventh infantry, wounded in neck while guarding freight house, several blocks ironi boundary: Cori»oral I. II. Jones, company Q, Seventh infantry, shot through lioth thighs by a Carranza soldier late Monday night while on patrol duty iu the rear of the custom house: L. F. Taylor, shot through the back by a machine gnu bullet at the lnited States custom house. May die: Mexican woman, finger shot off: Mexican boy. shot iu stomach. Says a London cablegram of yesterday afternoon: In his address before the house of commons tlii -afternoon Premier Asquith stated that Field Marshal Sir John French, commander -f the British forces on the FfcM co-Belgian front, was now in command of nearly I.oin.OOO men. The premier said he strongly believed the recruiting plan of the earl of Derby would succeed and that compulsion would In- unnecessary. Mr. Asquith said the total casual ties in France and Flanders amounted to 377.000. lie asserted the Germans had not made a net gain of a foot of ground since April. The premier accepted his full share of responsibility for the first attack on the Dardanelles, which resulted in failure, with the loss of several capital ships. He said this attack was made after full investigation and consultation with naval exiierts aud that it was sanctioned by the government, notwithstanding some doubts iu the mind of the governments principal naval adviser. The premier asserted the financial situation of Great Britain was serious and that the nation must 1m? prepared to make far greater sacri fices than it had yet done to enable it to sustain the burden imposed by the war. Mr. Asquith said lietweeu Great Britain there wa* full agreement and France to maintain the inde|ieiideuee of Serbia and not let be-r "leee-ome the prey . f the sinister and nefarious combination of Germany. Austria and Bui-Aria" How do we stand today: asked the premier "Iu August of last year we were prepared to «end abroad six infantry and two cavalry dived on" i I he operation* described by Field Marsh, French in his last dispatch he had under his c ■ maul u "t far short of l.oOO.OOO men. To thes. . st be added the troop* »t the Dardanelles, in F". other theaters of war as well as our t end in "arrilous and tr- - iu reserve. The contribution he continued. "Canada oflndU wis splendid." :f.n,vrr,e.r ..».«J"» •*»■£,. ar* i."-. •Ccnhi- Vew Zcalae , 25.000; South Afuca. after a i.Hlli.nt" campaign subduing the « ™»°?- ™" *«"• 1.OO0. tejMa. Hjl and either Newfoundland , ami rls of the empire all sent contingents. No ; •-.o,mt Z taken in t*r~ ** »r*** f»ra* lon *» units in the field. • uiintenance of these via London of Amsterdam yes disieitch from l ■ "The Vorwaerts Berllal says thai :h-ua-... ,dt -■ i ■ democratic party has re # ii„. ...ial "r,*Vf hSSl * «;"- -aiise " A the question- ,,k" ,.•"- iehotas at an early date i the cuou »uiiiy *uj «•" sWte vt bC"li5C rtqullc speedy discussion. The Frankfurter Zeitung issued Saturday devotes nearly an entire page to the new imperial government laws for ameliorating food conditions. The various messages received recently regarding the distress in Germany owing to scarcity of food are borne out by Mine. Roland Hcdst, a Dutch socialist, who has declared publicly that the extent of the need of the poorer classes in Germany is terrible. Mme. Hoist says that food riots occur almost dally. Some have occurred in Berlin, especially in the suburbs, where women wait for hours, and sometimes all night, in front of shops where fat is sold, and yet thousand" have to go home without being able to make purchases. Soon after the shops open the stocks are exhausted, ilieii frequently the women smash the chors and windows and from time to time some of them are arrested. The Vossische Zeitungs Sofia correspondent says a memlM r of a German grain company has arrived at Sofia with the puntose of assuring an adequate importation of Bulgarian grain. Of operations on the Russian front, the war office at Berlin said yesterdav: The German advance on Riga from the west has made further progress. In the Dvinsk region fierce fighting is under way. The Russians, undertaking a strong offensive movement, were repulsed with heavy losses. Army group of Field Marshal von Hindenburg: South of the Tukum-Rjga railway we made further gains. Before Dvinsk fierce fighting continued yesterday. Strong Russian attacks were repulsed with severe losses. The- battles between Swenton and Islen lakes are still proceeding. Five hundred prisoners fell into our hands. Army group of Prince I-eo-l old: The Russians attempted to halt our advance west of Czartorysk by a counter attack on a wide front with dense masses of troops. They were driven back with heavy losses. At Sienikowc© the Russians succeeded in temporarily penetrating po-sitons held by the troops of Jen. von Bothmer. We recaptured our trenches by a counter attack, and took more than 000 prisoners. The village of Sieuikowee itself was for the greater part recaptured by storm early this morning after bitter fighting during the night and 2.000 more prisoners were taken. Two weeks of Bulgarian action in Serbia has brought alwiiit a change in Roumanian public opinion which sixteen months of interventionist propaganda failed to do. M. Filipesco. leader of the Roumanian conservatives is said by the Bucharest corres indent of the Corriere della Seba. of Milan. Italy, to have declared in an interview. The Bulgarian conduct, continued M. Filll esco, has shown our people the danger which threatens them. Notwithstanding material difficulties the sentiment which caused interventionist manifestations in an elo»|uont expression of the will of the- 1— 1||, which does not want to allow- itself to be stifled by Bulgarian and Hungarians. The Couricrre dcdla Seras correspondent expresses the belief that rapid and successful action bv the allies iu the Balkans cannot fail to bring alcout the entry of Routnania into the war on their side. A London dispatch of yesterday says: Russian relief for the Serbians is in Bulgaria today, and for the time lieing. heavy fighting wljl prevail around Varna, which the Russians occupied after a terrific Itomtcardment by the fleet from the Black Sea. Turkish-Bulgarian forces are rushing to attack the invaders, who had hojied to relieve Serbia, and. if possible, thwart the German movement to Constantinople. The Czars men. however, seem to be- too late and thev will have a task on their hands to retain tlieir foothold in Bulgaria. Nish. erstwhile capital of Serbia and tile last remaining obstacle in the path of the onrushing Teutons, is under heavy Bulgarian fire today and its fall is imminent. The Austro-Gernians are preparing a new offensive against the Suez Canal, according to au Athens dispatch to the Rome Tribnna. The pa»cr adds that the British have made gigantic preparations to meet such an eventuality. Among other things, they have flooded the land along the- canal, leaving the fortifications just standing out of the water, the defenders being supplied with provisions by gunboats. King George. Iiack in London, was still better yesterdav. He passed a comfortable night and had no lower. He is slowly recovering, his physicians reported, from tbe saking up he suffered when his hor»e fcdl with him near the British war front in France last week. Xevertlieless. it was added. the king will be confined to his bed for some time. Extensive repair8 are Wing made on the State Kml viaduct and the following changes in the movement of surface cars are to lie iu effort .luring lie- continuance of this work, begun yesterday morn ing: Through route No. 1 1 Broadway -Cottage Gravel and through route No. 3 Lincoln-Indiana 1 south liouud, will be routed by way of Kiuzie, Dearborn, Lake, State and Eighteenth streets. The regular State street cars south hound will travel west in Kinzie str-et, south in Dearborn and east in Lake to State street and thence south. North hound there will be no change of route. Andrew Bonar Law, the unionist leader who now is minister of the colonies, in denying reports that political warfare in England is endangering imperial solidarity, says: "The whole nation is absolutely united iu its determination to carrv this war to a successful termination. The onlv "difference of poinion among us i» ax to whether the strength which ought to conie from this material unity is being most efficiently used in the prosecution of the war." That only two Chicago saloon licenses lapsed with the end of the last | eriod was the statement of George F. Lohnian. acting cashier for City Collector Forsberg. He said he was convinced that all had come in, but that the breweries applications had yet to be checked up, so the totals would not lie known for a day or two. The licenses of Barney Grogan and the Cadillac Hotel were not renewed. A new Anglo-French expedition to the Balkans is anounced by the Berlin Tageblatt. This newspaper publishes a telegram from Sofia, saying British and French transports, with troops, have appeared off Kavala. Greece. This port is on the north coast of the Aegean about twenty miles west of the Bulgarian border and eighty miles northeast of Salonika where the first allies expedition landed. In order to avoid the consumption of grain anl potatoes the manufacture of alcohol and fodder from reindeer moss is being tried on an extensive scale iu nortlieru Germany. Reindeer moss is plentiful in the arctic regions of Scandinavia, being the principal food of the reindeer during the winter. Several large shipments of the moss have been sent to Germany during the last two months. A dispatch to the London Star from Rotterdam says: "It is understood that General Saubcrzwcig. military governor of Brussels, generally believed resiwnsible for the final refusal to grant the American ministers recpiest for post|K ncmcnt of the execution of Miss Edith Cavell, has lieen removed from office and a new governor appointed." Fourteen i ersons. injured in a powder explosion a: Carneys Point. N. J., were taken to Wilmington hospitals yesterday. It is said others were injured but the niiml er is not known. Details have not yet been received at Du Pont Powder company offices iu Wilmington. From Vienna it is claimed that Austrian troops fighting in Russia took 142 officers and 30.000 men prisoners during October. On the Serbian front the captures numbered 0,000 men and twenty officers. There was also much lsioty on this front. The new trans Atlantic steamer Lafayette of the French Line has sailed from Bordeaux for New York on her maiden trip. The La f ay r tea carries about 2.000 passengers. She is COO foot long aud her gross tonnage is 23, GOO. James W. Gerard, the American ambassador to Berlin, says there is no truth in the report that Germany has requested the American commission for the relief of Belgium to undertake similar work in Poland.
