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C GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY J What seems to lie an intimation that the troops 1 of the entente allies, -. nt tti| la1 ■ ovaciialiug Scrli- ian territory, it they Lave not already done hi. v is contained in a statement declared in a Reuter a dispatch from Salouiki to have Ieen issued by the v French general staff on the Balkan front. The n statement qiMiti d by the Salouiki correspondent is a as follows: "We. the French and British, are re f tiring for reasons easy to understand. In view ■ r the fact that the Serbian army for the moment t V -tf-.t of the reckoning, our presence in Serbian v •frrftory is no longer necessary. Bulgarian sue- j cesses amount to an occu|iation of territory no v longer disputed by us. Thev liave invarible suffered | checks each time the allied troops assumed the t offensive, not withstanding their numerically forces.* f lu view of the latest turn of events in Macedonia j the diplomats of the entente powers are pressing t the Greek government to clear up promptly the t situation with regard to the allied troops there, as it is liliertv of movement, says a Renter dis- , patch from Athens. The feeling in Greek circles -seems somewhat pessimistic, according to these r advices, in view of the recent conn mini cat ions from the British and Trench legations dwelling u|R n the j determined attitude of the entente powers. The Bulgarians, heavily reinforced and well supported , by artillery, an- renewing violently their attack t nlHin the French -British forces in Macedonia. Their , assault has gone through all the preliminary stages and is now approaching the climax of intensity. Although pursuit .if the Serbians still continues, it is apparent from the proportions which the Mace- , doniau conflict is assuming that the major part of j the Bulgarian armv has diverted its attention to . the allies. The outcome of the battle now in f progress is awaited with great anxiety in England, . as it will determine in great measure the inimedi- f ate future for the entenli powers in the Balkans. . The report of the National Railways of Mexico for the year ended June 30. WIS, shows how the earning powers of the property have been effected by , the several revolutions which have been going on . in Mexico. The figures are given in Mexican jcxit- , rencv. Gross earnings for the year were ,776.- , 9si. as compared with 4,273,341 for the year , previous, and operating expenses were ,822,468. against 1,893,565. The reduction in operating pI.ense and gross earnings was due to a consider- able extent to the fact that only small sections j «.f the svstem were oin-rated by the company, the , greater part being operated l».v the various revolutionary chiefs. The deficit from operating expenses , exceeding earnings was 5,487. as compared with a surplus of ,379,770 a year ago. and the total income was 57,398. against a deficit of .06; .-572 in 11*14. The revenues for the year showed a deficit of ,253,665. against one »f ,315,028 , a vear ago. and the loss for the year, owing to ■ the interest on bonded debt, on collateral and equip- , lnent trust, etc.. and on notes payable was 8.-WM.32S. as compared with 8,835,624 a year j previous. Hopewell. Va.. the mushroom city of 2S.000 persons which was built up around the new high explosive plant of the Du Pont Iowder Company near Citv Point. Va.. was nearly wiped out by lire Thursday. The huge munition plant was saved, but more than four hundred buildings, including nearly all of tlie business liouses of Hopewell, were de-stroved. Two banks and all the hotels were burned. Ten thousand persons are homeless and many are being brought to Petersburg and Richmond on special trains. The property loss is estimated all the wav lrom ,000,000 to ,000,060. There are three Du" Pont factories at Hopewell— two for making guncotton and one for picric acid making. They now cover 107 acres of ground and employ aliout 1*000 men. working in three eight-hour shifts every dav in the week. And there are iierhaps ...000 more who c-ome to reap the harvest of paynights, and the weekly pay rolls have grown to ,000. From San Juan. Porto Rico, a dispatch of yesterday savs- Four blank and two solid shots were find by the French cruiser Descartes in holding up the American steamship Coamo, yesterday. A French lieutenant who boarded the Coamo said orders had been given to take all subjects of Germany and her allies from ships crews, lieginning Deoemjier 8. and to take all such persons from among the passengers after December IS. After the six shots had l een fired and the Coamo had stopped a small lioat put out from the cruiser, with the lieutenant and his men. On boarding the Coamo the lieutenant proceeded to Captain Barbours cabin and demanded the captain produce lists of the passengers and crew. The passengers were •ilarmcd a.., ran ".-■u :L~ t.-.: .ooms m tl.cir niglit-dotlies Captain Barbour asked why the Descartes Lad not waited until morning to stop the toamo. k as to avoid alarming the passengers. lhe lieu tenant replied he feared the steamship would have reached port. The captain protested against the action of the lieutenant in taking off the four Germans in his crew. Montenegrin troops repulsed energetic attacks made by the Austro-Hungarians and forced them to retire beyond Dubotchitza on Wednesday, according received by the to an official communication , Montenegrin consul general in Paris yesterday. The Montenegrins took one hundred prisoners and a quant Hv of rifles. The statement adds: On Thursday an Austrian aeroplane dropped bombs on et-tinle . without causing any damage. »n the same dav- the Austriaus launched from aeroplanes over • the Montenegrin front, a proclamation addressed 1 to the- army and population, advising them to cease .resistance. If they did not. the proclamation I stated. Montenegro would suffer the same fate as that of Serbia, the entente allies being unable to succor them or even to repulse an invasion of their own territory. A great number of Austrian 1 dead covered the field after the engagement on 1 Wednesday. Gen II J. E. Gonraud. who lost an arm when » commanding the French expeditionary force at the I Dardanelles and wh.. sustained other severe wounds • has been assigned to command one of the trench i armies at the front, although he has barer/ recovered The general himself applied for active I employment again. The night passed without occurrences of great importance, says tlie rreneh report of yesterday afternoon from the war office. In Champagne fighting with grenades is being 1 continued. During the day yesterday the enemy was driven beyond tin- ridge to the south of .saint f Souplet. Three hundred Villa soldiers were killed, a hundred taken prisoner and tlie remainder of the J Jose Rodriguez dispersed 4 mm. troops under General five miles north of Fronteras late Thursday, when General P Elias Calles rushed In from the south to the rescue of tlie lieleagured Carranza detachment under General Angel Flores. according to | retorts received at Douglas. Ariz. A hospital train for Fronteras on re-ceii.t.rf left gua Prieta at night a report that tlie number of Carranza | wounded was large, particularly among General J Flores men. American physician* were in charge ■ of the train. A naval battle may have occurred between Austrian I and Italian squadrons off the Albanian coast WediM-sdav. according to advices received in diplomatic circles at Athens. An Italian squadron appeared while tlie Austriaus were bombarding San Giovanni di Medua. those advices said. No other r details were given. The two superdreadnaughts authorized by the last ,. [ congress will Ik- built by the New York and Mare Island navv yards. Contracts for the two ships s Daniels following a conference have liecn let bv Secretary with President Wilson. Bids submitted 1 1 v a v n a f t v j v | t f j t t , r j , t , , j . f . f . , . , , , j , , , ■ , j , . • 1 I 1 1 » I • i I 1 f J | | J ■ I r ,. [ s 1 bv the government vards came within the limit of o o- Ml fixed by congress for each ship— ,800,000— 1 while bids ..f all private builders exceeded th.it amount. Both ships are expected to be complete, 1 within thirty-four months. Secretary Daniels announced that congress would be asked to appropriate about ,000,000 to equio the Philadelphia navy yarl o for battleship construction. The disabled freight steamer Minnesota. In tow of the tug Dauntless and the wrecking steamer Iaqua. which were sent to her assistance, was slowly mr.l:- » ing her way up along the coast yesterday, and it was expected that she would make San Francise; port by next Tuesday. Any mystery surrounding the crippling of the big vessel remained unsolved, efforts by newspaper men alioard the Venitia. the « private vacht of **■ D. Spreckels. which reached . the Minnesota yesterday, to communicate with ; Captain Thomas Garlick having failed. The British cruiser which recently pursued the j American steamer Vineland from New York down j the Atlantic coast, kept well outside the three- ; mile territorial limit, the state department was advised yesterday by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the British ambassador. This advice was supplied in ; denial of a charge that the cruiser had entered the three-mile zone. The Vineland was pursued on ■ the suspicion that her ownership was partly German. It put into port at night and eluded the cruiser in a fog. The unfilled tonnage of the tnited States Steel corporation on Novemlter 36 totaled 7.1S9.489 tons, an increase of 1.024.037 tons over October. The increase in the unfilled tonnage was a surprise to the financial district, as the figures were well above, in manv cases double, all previous estimates. The figures also mark the greatest increase ever announced bv the 1nited States Steel coriwration. and the total unfilled tonnage is, with one exception, the largest ever reported. A Berlin dispatch says that reports from Constantinople sav well-organized Senussi tril esmen and Tri| olitaniar.s have occupied the whole vilavet of Tripoli. The Senussi forces also entered Kasasyrt. where they are rei orted to have routed the Italians. The Italians are said to have lost 0.000 men killed and to have abondoued a large quantity of arms and ammunition. The headquarters of the attacking forces, the re|M.rts add. is in Suk-el-Dshunia. one hour and a half from the citv of Tripoli. Two woman bandits held up C. II. Barnes, 1042 Washington boulevard, at Sheldon street near Randolph early yesterday and battled boldly with him for his valuables. Policeman James Leonard put the women to flight and pursued them, firing his revolver. After an exciting chase "Mary Doe" and "Josh? Wagner" were captured. A man who engineered the robliery escaped and is being sought. TIk- women were overpowering Barnes when the policeman apjieared. The man robber did nothing but encourage the women, Barnes said. The American schooner Henry W. Cramp. Captain Morris. Philadelphia for Rouen with 9.100 barrels of refined oil for the French government has returned to Philadelphia. While 500 miles from Cape Henlopen the schooner was discovered to be . leaking. Water in the hold was then seven feet deep. The vessel was stopped and pumping begun. 1 The next day, December 0. Captain Morris diseov- I • red the pumps were disabled and the fore shroud . rigging bad parted. These mishaps aroused the 1 captains suspicion and he decided to return. A German official statement received at Amster- , dam from Berlin declares unfounded the reports ; appearing in newspapers in the entente countries of ; the sinking of the armored cruiser Dertflinger, tue j small cruiser Fraueulob. a 3.000 ton cruiser off • Windau and two submarines in the straits of Gib-raltar. The statement also denies reports of the J destruction of a submarine by a British aeroplane ; and the capture by the British of a new submarine ; recently commissioned at Stettin. According to information received in military ; quarters at Berlin, the Anglo-French expedition j in the Balkans has continued its retreat and has . now entirely evacuated Serbian territory. In the j battle between Bulgarian and British forces in j southwestern Serbia, ten guns were captured from . the British, the war office announced today. The ■ statement follows: "The army of Gen. von Koevess t in the last two days took about 1.200 prisoners. j "South of Strumitza the Bulgarian troops took ten guns from the British." Attention is being directed to a movement for closer co-operation between the British and French houses of parliament by a conference held at the I house of commons on Thursday between Franklin ! Bouillon, vice-president of the foreign affairs com- ! mittee of the chamber of deputies, and the Britisli ; government whip, John W. Gulland. and other meni-liers of the commons, to discuss the possibility of a joint meeting of the house of commons and the French chamber of deputies. At Erie, Pa., yesterday fire broke out early in the elevators of the Anchor line on the water front, destroying two sections of the combination elevators. Hie lowest estimate of the loss is a half million ! dollars to 50,000. About a half million bushels of Canadian grain, said to be destined for the allies, was destroyed. Rumors of incendiarism are ; being circulated, but no basis for them has yet been , 1 found. Sir Edward Grey. Britisli secretary for foreign i affairs, and Field" Marshal Earl Kitchener, secretary - of war. who are in Paris to confer with French government officials, wore received yesterday bv President Poincare. President Poincare gave » a "luncheon to the British cabinet members, which 1 was attended by members of the French cabinet t and undersecretaries of state. A Zurich dispatch says violent demonstrations in favor of peace have taken place in Berlin. Tlie ! tiolioe were obliged to charge the crowds. The * windows of stores and cafes were smashed during the rioting. Soldiers in the crowd took an active 8 part in Be disturbances. Similar demonstrations j are reported in Dresden and Leipzig. Cardinal Felxin von Hartmann, archbishop of Cologne, - left Rome Thursday night after again see-; - ing Pope Benedict. The cardinal said he was the J bearer of a papal message for Emperor William i and also recommendations for peace. It is under-stc*M d - Cardinal von Hartmann probably will see i Prince von Buelow. German ambassador to Italy, . in Switzerland. The London Exchange Telegraphs Geneva corre-J - spondent wired yesterday he has learned from re-| liable sources that Hungary is resolved to make * peace without the consent of either Austria or Germane. - Great demonstrations in favor of peace are 1 occurring throughout Hungary, the correspondent t reported. Diplomatic relations with Austria-Hungary are 9 in danger of being broken off by the United States s unless the urgent demands of the American Bate " to Vienna fnr a disavowal of the sinking of the e Ancona and for reparation are complied with. Tlie Canadian parliament has been called to meet t January 12. There will be an appropriation of f 5 MMio.fl0o tor Canadas war operations during the e coining year. The Italian steamer Dante Alighieri and tlie Norwegian . steamer Nereus have been sunk. The crews s of lioth vessels were saved. The Danish steamer r Minsk has been sunk. The crew was saved, Kaiser Wilhelm will visit Brussels Sunday, re-- - maining for three days. Berlin advices said lie e plans to visit the battlefield of Waterloo. 1
