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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. A dispatch of yesterday from London says: Lieutenant General Sir Terry I-ak commander of the Hritish forces in Mesn]totumia, reports that the British attack M the Turkish position at Sannny-yet. on the Tigris river, just below Kut-el-Amara, failed to break through the Turkish lines. The failure will come as a disappointment to the Hritish public, which had hoped after the recent victory at Imni -el-Henna that success would speedily attend the operations for the relief of General Townshend and his men besieged in Kut-el-Amara. The check to the British operations, according to the official dispatch, was due to the floods, which are rapidly extending and seriously hampering the Hritish movements. The relieving force consists of two divisions, one under Lieutenant General Gorringe, in chief command on the left bank of the Tigris, and the other under General Keary, on the right bank. It is sup-pnsril there is another division in reserve, but of this nothing is officially known. The Sannayyat position extends about two miles on cither bank of the Tigris, the left flank resting on the Suweki marsh and the right flank on the nameless marshy ground stretching twelve miles between Orak and Kssinn. Apparently, the Turkish position at Sannayyat has been strongly re-enforced since the Turkish defeat at Vmm-el-IIenna. Even should ieneral Gorringe succeed in driving the Turks from Sannayyat. there is still another strong Turkish position at Essinn, both the flanks of which are protected by water defences, before reaching Kut-el-Amara. General Gorringe has had great experience in river warfare. He was with Kitchener in the famous advance to Khartum, but owing to the fact that the Turkish positions are only vulnerable to frontal attacks, intense anxiety prevails in England, which is being compared to the anxious ]H»riod while awaiting the relief of Ladysmitn during the Boer war. Concerning the terrific figiiting near Verdun, a London dispatch of yesterday says: Furious French counter attacks and sheeted artillery fire are checking the mighty drive launched by the Germans on the northern fronts of Verdun. The French are striking blows rivaling in power the tremendous smashes directed by the crown prince against Dead Mans Hill and the positions northwest of Verdun. The crown princes attack has been brought to a complete halt on every sector excepting on the barren northeastern ridge of Dead Mans Hill, where the Hermans, the French war office admits, gained a footing in portions of French trenches last night. German losses since theVerdun battle began fifty-one days ago total more than 200.000. the French war office estimated today. The German semiofficial news agency claims the capture of 30,000 French prisoners, indicating that French losses have at least exceeded 100.000. Official statements from Itoth the German and French war offices this afternoon, indicated that the stubborn French resistance is breaking the power of the German offensive. A terrific battle is still going on northwest of Verdun, but the fighting lias narrowed to the three-mile front of Dead Mans Hill. Debouching along the Chattancourt road, the French attacked the German flank with such viciousness that the German assault against Dead Mans Hill was almost completely checked North and northeast of Verdun the fighting has not thus far attained the violence of the engagements west of the Meuse. Berlin this afternoon Minounced further gains southwest of Fort Douaumont. but r.-ported the French on the aggressive around Pepper Heights. A Washington telegram of yesterday says: Tn-official and unconfirmed reports that Villa is dead I reached the Carranza embassy today and were given i some degree of credence by officials there. The reports were represented as having come from Queretaro. General Carranzas provisional capital. They were unsubstantiated by the latest dispatches 1 to the war and state departments. The circumstantial reports of Villas recent injury, however, and the rigors of his long and hurried flight in which lie lias been variously reported as being carried on a litter on the shoulders of his men or in 1 a carriage over the rough Mexican trails, gave some color to the possibility that the bandit chieftain may have lieen unable to survive the hardships of the flight in his disabled condition. Official estimates of the number of troops in Mexico and on the border available for an emergency were given at the war department today. General Scott, chief of staff, announced that 18,565 troops now constitute the border patrol. General Pershing has about 11. 000 men in Mexico, including those holding his line of communications. How greatly the mobile army has been drawn upon for tiie Mexican expedition and border service, was also disclosed by General Scott. He estimated that only 4.000 troops remain in the United States not engaged on the border. From General Pershings headquarters, via Juarez, yesterday a message says: Renewed reports have Ixen received here by General Pershing that Francisco Villa is dead and buried. These reports are under investigation. Meanwhile the hunt for the Villa bandits is proceeding witli renewed vigor, witli the arrival at the front of General Pershing. Mexicans who had seen Villa on his flight south, said that the ban. lit looked thin and emaciated a week ago. Beports. however, are conflicting. One fairly good authority stated that Villa was able to walk the first day after he received his wound, which indicated that no bones were broken. Aeroplanes today covered several hundred square miles of territory scouting over a country heretofore unexplored by planes. The Mexicans in this section are well dis osed toward the Americans, and many of them are bitter against Villa. The American line of communication now is about 400 miles long. It is again reported that Pablo Lopez, who murdered seventeen Americans last January at Santa Ysabel. is not dead, but wounded, and that the Villa lieutenant is trying to escape the Americans. Reports of friendly co-operation of the Carranza troops continue. An El Paso message of yesterday says: With no official advices for days of the whereabouts of the advance guard of American cavalry pursuing Francisco Villa, officials of the Carranza government in Juarez sought yesterday to obtain information over the Mexican land lines of the position of the American troops. Apparently the rush of the American cavalry southward has lieen so rapid that it has carried Colonel Dodd and Colonel Brown with their troopers far Ixyond all lines of communication. Army officers at Fort Bliss believe that when the exiHditionary commanders get in touch witli General Funston they will report that the American troops have engaged the Villa forces in battle. Beports that a battle has been fought with Villa bands south of Satevo were current early today, but there was nothing to confirm these reports. Art experts declare that the sale of forty tapestries composing the J. P. Morgan collection for approximately ,000,000. announced in New York yesterday, is the largest single transaction ever made in such works of art. The tapestries are now on exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they were placed by the late J. p. Morgan, Sr.. along with other collections of paintings, furniture, sculpture and porcelains of a total estimated value of from 0,000,000 to 3,000,000. The firm of art dealers to whom the tapestries were sold stated that the collection was not bought for any American or European collector. The most notable tapestry in the collection is the Mazarin. once owned by the famous French cardinal. It dates from about the year 1500 and its subject is "The Triumph of Christ and the New Dispensation." From Shanghai. China, a dispatch says: The city of Canton and the surrounding districts are peaceful and the naval forces are favorable to the southern isolationists. Lung Chi-Kuang. governor of the province of Kwang-Tung, on account of his lack of popularity witli the powers now in control in the name of the revolution, may be sent westward into the province of Kwang-Si unless he takes refuge at lL tigkong. Bevolutiouary leaders from Yunnan and otl.er southern provinces are on their way to Canton, which will probably be made the temporary capital of the revolutionary government. The big problem for the moment is a financial one. as their treasury is empty and kssriacM is at a standstill. Without Mat* the senate yesterday adopted a resolution by Senator Kenyon rep. directing the attorney general, if not incompatible with public interest, to submit to the senate all reports of investigations made by the department into the Standard Oil company since the Supreme court decree of dissolution against that company and particularly :iuv investigation into gasoline prices. A letter to Senator Kenyon from B. S. Welsh, counsel for the W-steru Oil MiM» ass,„ iation. declared indeixnd leut oil jobbers of the middle west would 1m- driven I out of business and facing financial ruin unless an I* end is brought to diserimatory prices of gasoline 1 dictated by the Standard Oil company. L The Bowman Dairy companys plant at Mokena. m damaged by fire during the recent milk strike, will I i 1 1 be reopened there on Thursday. This announcement was made simultaneously with a statement from Bowman officials that they will "bury the hatchet" and seek co-operation with the farmers. At a meeting in Mokena. farmers of Will and Cook counties formally refused to allow "scab" dairymen to haul union produced milk to bottling plants. The farmers announced that they would send representatives to Springfield to fight the proposed tuberculin test. The Spanish steamer Santanderino lias been sunk by a torpedo with the loss of four lives. Thirty -six survivors, several of them women, have been landed by a Danish steamer at the small French promontory of Socoa, near St. Jean de Luz. The passengers and crew were given fifteen minutes to leave the ship. The torpedoing of the steamer has produced a painful impression on the Spanish press and public. The Santanderino was a vessel of 2.594 gross tons and had been trading between Liverpool and United States ports. By royal decree the following classes of Italian reservists are called immediately to the colors: Men born in 1890 and who have served in the cavalry; men born in 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885 and 1880 and who have served in the mounted artillery, and men born in 1882, 1883, 1884 and 1885 and who have served in the engineers, as well as all men of the territorial militia who have served in the cavalry, and also men of the transport service for artillery and engineers. / Part of the American troops now stationed in Texas may be sent to Mexico to strengthen the constantly lengthening lines of communication of the United States expeditionary force in pursuit of Villa. Such a plan was under consideration by the war department yesterday as a result of the situation along the border, which is said to be quieter than heretofore. For the present, however, patrols in New Mexico and Arizona will not be disturbed. Official denial was made yesterday by J. W. White, inspector of immigration agencies of the Canadian government, that William and Louis Schroeder of Iowa had been executed or condemned as spies at Clavet. Saskatchewan, March 24. Mr. White said that the story was not only untrue, but that such an execution or sentence would be impossible, as persons were not being shot in Canada for treason or any other reason. Francis D. Connery. former city clerk, now comptroller of the sanitary district, was knocked down and badly beaten yesterday as he was starting on a tour of the twenty-eighth ward in the interest of John G. Jacobson, the Sullivan candidate for democratic ward committeeman against the present committeeman. Frank Paschen, who is the Harrison candidate for re-election. Connery s assailants escaped in automobiles. The three leaders of the Diaz plot to seize Juarez and overthrow the Carranza garrison there last Sunday were executed by the firing squad in Juarez early yesterday. The three leaders were Nicholas Chavazarria, Jose Inez Bornel and Floren-cio Hernandez. The condemned men confessed the plot before they were executed. Other Mexicans were implicated. J. H. Locke, an American, of Minaca, who escaped from that city to General Pershings camp the night of March 28, told how Herman Blanker-burg, a German, and David Bruce, an American, were killed by Villa bandits. Letters found on Bruce indicated that his right name was Don McGregor, a newspaper man of Chicago. A spy was put to death in London yesterday. An nouncement of this occurrence was made officially as follows: "A prisoner charged with espionage was tried by general court martial at Westminster Guild Hall on March 20 and the following days and was sentenced to death, which was carried out this morning." The United States transport Logan is en route from Honolulu for San Francisco, carrying 1,954 tons of cane sugar, the first cargo of the kind, it was said, ever carried to the United States from a Pacific port on a transport. Trans-Pacific service by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company between San Francisco and the Orient will be re-established on June 17. when the companys new liner Ecuador is scheduled to sail.
