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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. From Washington yesterday a dispatch in regard to the Mexican situation said: Secretary Baker today received a dispatch from Naco saying that General Villa was last seen heading in the direction of the place where reports yesterday said he was buried. The dispatch was taken by war department officials to mean that the rejKirts of Villas death might l e true. The dispatch was immediately sent to President Wilson. Secretary Baker said the report that Villa was headed toward the place where liis liody was said to have been buried came through a colonel of the American army and was forwarded as a matter of information without indicating whether the colonel himself lielieved it. Villas body was to have reached Chihuahua City by special train some time last night, but American Consul Letcher has not even forwarded the rumors as to Aill.is death, which must be circulating there. The Mexican embassy here had no additional information. Its last report from Consul Garcia at El Paso said he was seeking confirmation. State and war department officials refused to comment today on General Pershings report of the Parral fight, which is much different from the version transmitted by .enoral Carranza to support his suggestion that American troops be withdrawn. The American re-l ort shows that Carranza troops not only joined in the attack upon the little detachment of Americans, but followed them several miles as they withdrew to avoid a clash. The majority of the Mexicans killed are reported by General Pershing to have been Carranza soldiers, one of whom was an officer. It was indicated at the state department that further details would be sought from American officers before a reply would be sent to General Carranza. Secretary Lansing planned originally to deal with the Parral incident as a separate question and not in the reply to the note suggesting the recall of the American expedition. The reply to the Carranza proposal for withdrawal was still in preparation today. It will outline the terms under which the United States will discuss the withdrawal of its forces, and until reports of Villas death have been confirmed no change in the program will be made. It was reasserted today that, should the body be identified as that of Villa, the expedition would come out of Mexico at once. No instructions have yet been sent to Consul Letcher or Ceneral Pershing, however, as to the identification to be required. None will go forward until these officials transmit some report. From I . union yesterday a dispatch says: Decisive steps by the allies have forced a crisis at Athens, with the |M ssil i|ity that Greece may find herself thrust into the war against her will. Overriding the objections f the Greek government, the allies have licgnii trans|Hirting Serbian troops overland by rail from Corfu to Saloniki. The Austrian and German gowrnineiits. according to Athens di patches today, protested several days ago that they would regard it as a deliberately unfriendly act if «;reece permitted this troop movement. French correspondents at Athens reported that King Con stantino is incensed at the action of the allies and may attempt to stop the transportation of Serbian troops by a show of arms. The allies did not want to transport the newly-equipped Serbian army from the island of Corfu to Saloniki by water because of the danger from Austro-German submarines. They therefore suggested to Premier Skouloudis that the Serbian troops be sent to Patras by steamer and then transported by rail. The Greek prime minister sounded out the German and Austrian ministers on this suggestion. They telegraphed their governments and received immediate replies that both Germany and Austria would consider that Greece had overstepped the bounds of neutrality if she acquiesced in the allies suggestion. This information was at once communicated to the ministers of the allies. Premier Skouloudis announced that Serbian troops would have to pass through Piraeus, the port of Athens, in a movement by rail, and that their presence near the capital might inflame the lieople with violent demonstrations. The allies however, proceeded with their arrangements and the first Serbian detachment to be landed ut Patras reached Saloniki on Saturday. A dispatch of yesterday from Washington said: President Wilson late today completed the communication to Germany on submarine warfare and sent for chairman Stone of the senate foreign relations committee for a conference, probably tonight. This action was in line with the presidents policy of keeping congress informed of the progress of the negotiations. The note is expected to go forward to Berlin at the end of the conference. President Wilson, in frequent consultation with Secretary Lansing, worked practically all day yesterday on the communication in which Germany will be called to account for the numerous recent attacks upon merchant ships with Americans aboard. The document is designed as the final word of the United States on the subject. The document, officials said, will press the submarine issue to a decision. It was reiterated that the Sussex case would form only a link in the chain of evidence the United States will present to Germany to show that her promises have nbt been fulfilled. The document was characterized by officials today as being positive in tone and they believe, that only a prompt acquiescence by Germany in the position taken by the United States can prevent a break in diplomatic relations. Unofficial dispatches from Berlin, indicating that the German government is ready to meet the United States more than half way, it was said, will not change the course of the American government decided on at Fridays cabinet meeting. The text of the days French war office statement follows: On the left bank of the River Mouse there has been an intense bombardment of the French positions in the Avocourt wood, and on the front from Le Mort Hommer Dead Mans Hill to Cumieres. On the right bank of the river the night passed in relative calm except in the region to the south of Haudremont wood, where there was continued artillery activity. There were no infantry attacks during the day and night. There is nothing to report from the remainder of the front, with the exception of the customary cannonading. During the night of April 16-17. a French air squadron composed of nine machines, during an intense fog. executed certain important bombing operations in the region of Conflans, Pagny, Arnaville and Rombach. Projectiles were dropped as follows: Twelve shells on the railroad station of Conflans, sixteen on the factory at Rombach, eight on the railroad station at Arnaville. eleven on the railroad line at Pagny and Ars. It was a force of Carranzas soldiers that engaged the little detachment of American cavalry at Parral Wednesday in a regularly organized action, according to a detailed report written by Major Frank Tompkins and forwarded to General Funston by General Pershing. Forty of the Mexican soldiers, including one major and one civilian, were killed by the retreating Americans. The American casualties were two killed and six wounded, including Major Tompkins. His wound was slight. The American.* are north and west of Parral. re-enforced by a squadron of the Tenth Cavalry under Major Young, accompanied by Colonel W. C. Brown and a picked squadron under Major Robert L. Howze. Fear for their safety has been dispelled by this report and by troop disposition that General Pershing has ordered, but the character of which General Funston did not wish to reveal. Rioting is reported to have taken place in Chihuahua in the last twd days. Messages received at El Paso stated that there had been an anti-America outbreak, but that the trouble was due solely to the desperate condition of the masses of the people, who were facing starvation. Corn is selling in Chihuahua at two pesos, worth four cents American, a quart; beans, the staple feature of the poorer Mexicans diet, costs two and a half pesos a kilogram a little over two pounds: lard is fifteen pesos a quart. With the standard of pay for a days work at two pesos, the laboring classes are finding it a hard time keeping body and soul together. According to the messages received here, the rioters have looted several food shops and only half-hearted attempts to control them have been made by the soldiers, who are themselves in almost as bad a plight as the civilians. The German war office gave out the following statement yesterday: Western front: In the region of Pervyse. Flanders, an enemy aeroplane was brought down by our anti-aircraft guns close behind the Belgian lines and was destroyed by our artillery. First Lieutenant Barthold brought down northwest of Perrone his fifth enemy aeroplane, a British biplane. The pilot was dead and the observer seriously injured. Eastern front: The Russians showed great activity at the bridgehead at Dvinsk. The Overseas News Agency today made public the following: Russian soldiers at Nikolay-esk. government of Samara, mutinied and set fire to the barracks. Twenty-seven soldiers perished in the flames. The men complained of ill-treatment by their officers. The negotiations l etween the United States and Germany are being eagerly followed in Anstria-Ilungary. Count Tisza. the Hungarian premier, is vehemently opposing any policy likely to lead to a rupture with the United States. The question was discussed during the last week by the Austrian and Hungarian delegates who met at Budapest to continue the Ausgliech negotiation and a decision was reached to take certain definite steps in Berlin. Moreover, it is stated, should a break occur, Austria-Hungary will take no cognizance of it and will endeavor to continue friendly relations with the United States. A French aviator dropiied sixteen bombs from an altitude of only 100 yards 011 the decks of a German warship in the North sea, the French war office announced yesterday afternoon. The French plane flew so low that it is believed the bombardment had" good effect. Aviators were active last night on the Verdun front and east of the fortress, despite the heavy fog. French army squadrons bombarded the railway stations at Conflans, Pagny, Ameille and Kompach. French air flotillas also attacked enemy camps at Strumnitza and Bogantizi, on the Greek, frontier. The department of agriculture, in a circular issued yesterday, recommends the use of. lighter-weight papers to relieve the present stringency in paper-making materials. Many publishers and* users of wrapping papers have adopted this plan, it is said. The weights of printing, writing, ledger and wrapping papers in many instances, the department suggests, can be materially and profitably-reduced. In a single year the government through-this plan effected a total saving of 8,000. The Havas correspondent at Berne telegraphs that the project for the purchas;- of transatlantic steamships by the Swiss government, to enable it to increase the nations food supply under the protection of the Swiss flag, has been taken up by the federal council. The shipping requirements of the entente powers are so great that Switzerland is finding serious difficulty in importing the necessary supplies. Serious losses continue to be shown in the British casualty lists. The lists issued Saturday and Sunday give the names of 38 officers killed, 118 wounded and 29 missing. The losses to the rank and file are correspondingly heavy. The sinking of a neutral ship and a British steamship was reported by Lloyds yesterday. The Norwegian ship Glendoon was sunk by gunfire. The lost British steamship was the Harrovian, which was unarmed. George W. Peck, author of "Pecks Bad Boy," former mayor of Milwaukee and twice governor of Wisconsin, died Sunday in his residence in Milwaukee. He was 75 years old. He had been ill a short time.
