view raw text
; I | 1 • i ■ ; 1 • t i r . i 1 1 1 ■ " » L s 8 0 .. f J is , " " " J s r a GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. I t More than 0.000 loaded freight cars stood idle ? at the Clearing yards yesterday, while the belt . officials awaited the arrival of Assistant Commis- ! sioner G. W. W. Hanger of tlie federal bureau of mediation and conciliation, who. they hope, will r bring about a settlement of tlie strike of engineers, firemen and trainmen which has completely tied up j the transfer-service. The officials said that nothing would be done until the federal mediator had a try at the matter. The unions said they would not con- I sider federal mediation. The union men declare the ? strike can lie settled in two hours if only the heads l of the company call them up and agree to run the 1 service train which is the bone of contention in 1 the strike. The company has called on Washington 1 for aid in the matter and, although it was said I an embargo would lie put on business until the I strike was settled, announcement was made jester- day that attempts to run the trains would be made. There are nearly 00* trainmen out on strike. Wages ■ and working conditions do not enter the controversy. • The only grievance of the men is that the company J hail moved their terminal to Clearing, and they ] declare they lose three hours a day and fare in getting there. They want the company to run a j service train from Seventy-fifth and Halsted streets to Clearing. Other roads run such trains under like conditions, they assert. A dispatch from Athens to the Havas News agency at Paris says: "Tlie ministers of the quadruple entente, according to the Greek press, officially in- formed Premier Skouloudis that the economic co- , ercion has lieen discontinued and that Greek ships detained in the jiorts of the entente allies woukl be released." Tlie Greek parliamentary elections have lieen fixed for Sunday next. The Greek government officially denies that Bulgarians have entered Greek territory, and it is considered in competent quartets here that an entrance of the Bulgarians into Greek Macedonia is improbable, says a Havas dispatch from Athens under Tuesdays date. "The press unanimously declares that the presence of Bulgarians in ireek Macedonia would arouse national indignation, and the situation arising from the retreat of the allies to Greek territory and the an- proach of Bulgarian troops is preoccupying official circles." says the dispatch, "but competent persons consider their entry most imiirobable. The ireek government is following closely me course of evens and is ready ti take the decisions required by the highest interests of the country." The official report on the progress of hostilities given out by the French war office yesterday after- noon reads as follows: Last night was relatively quiet. There was fighting with hand grenades in the Artois district and in the sectors of Roclin- cotirt and of the Chantecler farm. Between the Oise and tlie Aisne heavy French shells caused the explosion of a depot of German munitions at a iKiint to the north of Puisaleine in the region of Tracy-Le-Val. In addition to these bombardments roiioried yesterday, out aviators during the day of the fourteenth made many flights in pursuit of enemy aviators. One of our aviators made an attack below Schlettstadt. Alsace, on an enemy machine, which was put to rout. Two others en-; gaged in combat three Albatrosses within the line of the enemy in the Artois. One Albatross was compelled to land. Finally, one of our squadrons, in conjunction with British aviators, bombarded the aviation field of the Germans at Hervilly, in the Somme. From Berlin a dispatch of yesterday says: The retreating Serbians an- being pursued farther. Southwest of Plevleje. in northern Montenegro, they were driven across the Tara river and farther to the east, across the Grah-Broderovo line. Several hundred prisoners were taken. In the official Bulgarian report of December 13, as given out here today by the Overseas News Agency, the asser-5 t ion is made that when the French troops withdrew from southwestern Serbia they took away all food supplies from the civilian population, burned the bouses and drove off the people, leaving them with-" out food or shelter. The Greek consul general at Constantinople, who has been absent for a year. has returned to his post, a Constantinople dispatch states, says the Overseas News Agency today. It is further reported from Constantinople that the post of ireek minister to Turkey, vacant since last spring, will soon be filled by the appointment of M. Kallergis, former Greek minister of foreign affairs. The announced policy of France and England of searching neutral vessels at sea for subjects of countries with which the allies are at war was further evidenced by the news that the Spanish steamship Montevideo, from Spanish ports, was twice held up and examined during its voyage to New Y. rk. where it arrived yesterday. Pas- sengers said that on November 30. when the ship was twentv miles off Cadiz, it was stopped by th » French cruiser Cassard and held for four hours while officers of the cruiser carefully inspected tlie paiiers of all passengers, who had been ordered to assemble in the dining salon. Everyone proved hjs citizen-hip satisfactorily, and no one was taken ..ff. On lleceinlier ::. off the Azores, an officer from the British cruiser Essex came aboard, put every-s one through a cross-examination, and finally departed, after warning the passengers that, hereafter, it would lie well for tbem to carry with them while traveling a birth certificate as well as a passport. The announcement that Dutch East Indies liners and mail boats will abandon for the present their usual course through tlie Suez Canal and will fol- lm the Ca|ie Route, iii conjunction with the Cologne Cazettes repert of Britisli trench digging and general defensive preparations on both sides of the canal, is taken bv the Rotterdam correspondent of tlie London Daily News as confirmation of rapidly maturing German designs on Egypt. The Dutch I t ? . ! r j I ? l 1 1 1 I I ■ • J ] j , C steamship companies explain the change of route by jt the increasing uncertainty of obtaining the neces- r. sary amount of coal at the apppoiuted stations, t but as the change of route will prolong the voyage I for twelve or fourteen days, the Daily News b correspondent asserts that the change could not have been dictated by any but the most serious I I reasons. From various other sources come hints o of the rapid completion of German plans for a pro- fi jected attack on Egypt. in j Rarney Dreyftiss. president of the Pittsburgh J National league club, and peace emissary of the ! National league, arrived in Chieago yesterday after- noon at 2:15 over the Pennsylvania railroad. He J brought with him the agreement drawn up be- tween tlie National and Federal leagues looking 1 to the absorption of the latter, but refused to J I give its terms. He said: "We have reached a point where we agree on all points for a pact for the cessation of the baseball war, and the dis- continuance of the Federal league. All that is necessary is the consent of the American league as I to the disposition of players, and other points in which we are both interested. We are bound under t the national agreement to work with the American • a league and can go no farther without the indorse- t ment of that body. I have come on to present to t them the terms, and hope for favorable action, s In that case, the war is over. I cannot go into t the details of the agreement at this time," I The Rritish embassy at Washington received yes- , terday from London authorization to issue safe conduct to Captains Boy-Ed and Von Papen. the ] withdrawn German naval and military attaches, j The safe conduct will be unconditional, it having j ls-en decided by the allies not to require the officers j to give assurances that they will refrain from par- , ticipation in the war after reaching Germany. Issuance of safe conduct to their successors has not yet been considered. No request has been made. , Captains Boy-Ed and Von Paiien will leave New York, barring a change in their plans, next Tuesday on the Holland-American liner Noordam. This was learned authoritatively, although officials of the . line declined to discuss the matter. The steamship Oscar II., having on board the I Ford peace party, docked at Kirkwall. Orkney Islands, yesterday. Kirkwall is the port into which most transatlantic vessels which are held up for search by the Britisli authorities are taken. The Oscar II. was destined for Christiania, and its arrival at Kirkwall probably means it is being detained by tlie British. A London dispatch yesterday night said it was hardly likely the steamship would I be taken to Kirkwall, as it had no cargo aboard. It was intimated the government, following the policy recently outlined in tlie house of commons, hardly would take steps which would bring the ; Ford party any nearer the English coast than was i necessary. Two hundred tons of gold, worth 02,000,000 and I occupying the space of three cords of wood, are . stored in the Cnited States assay office in New-York. Tlie gold is in 10.345 bars. It represents I the accumulation of British sovereigns and other foreign coins brought to the Inited States within i about six weeks in an effort to maintain the financial balance between European nations and the Inited States. The bars have been melted down , to 910.6 fine. It is finer than the gold used in , the United States mints. The employes of the , assay office, working overtime, finished the task of melting it down yesterday. The appropriations committee of the French chamber of deputies, reporting yesterday upon the » requirements of the government for the first quarter r of 1916. summarizes the cost of the war thus: The total expenses of the government from August t 1. 1914. to December 31. 1915. were 1915.sh.2O4.S0O,O0O. of which fhe purely military expenditures were j ,809,400,000. While the average expenses of the government during the first five months of the war were 50,000,000, the estimates for the first ; quarter of the new year average 00,000,000 monthly. John J. Hatpin Tuesday night was found guilty t of accepting bribes from criminals while chief of the detective bureau. The jury deliberated five e hours on the verdict. The penalty is one to five J years in the penitentiary, the term to be fixed by the judge. Nineteen ballots were taken by the e twelve men who decided that Halpin as a "police s official had betrayed the public. Seven of the ballots " were wasted on the question of penalty, which was not for the jurors to decide. The Athens correspondent of the Secolo of Milan 1 says a German submarine has been sunk in the ff Black sea. off the Bulgarian port of Varna, and that a Turkish torpedo boat has been sunk in the e Sea of Marmora by the British. The Turkish cruiser r Sultan Selim. formerly the German warship Goeben. came out into the Black sea. the correspondent adds, and was torpedoed, though the vessel was not t seriously damaged. The political situation at Athens has been further r complicated by the sudden illness of King Gonstan-tine. " ac -ording to a special dispatch to the Ixindon [ Chronicle yesterday. "The king is snfferiug from a mild attack of influenza and a slight fever." • wired the correspondent. "His physicians have advised . him to remain in his room and not to participate in state affairs." Prussian casualty lists Nos. 380 to 389. according " to the Rotterdamsche Courant, contain the e names of 65.340 killed, wounded and missing, • making the total 2.244.248. This total is exclusive e of the names on 237 Bavarian. 310 Wurtembergiau. 233 Saxonian. and the naval and Turkish lists, says s one newspaper. The steamer Panto Alighieri of the Transall.in Ilea Italiaua has not been torpedoed, and is safe e in an Italian port, according to a cable message e received yesterday by the New York agents of the e line from the home office at Genoa. | [
