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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAT. The German official statement of yesterday said: Our artillery extensively bombarded British j osit-ious in the region of St. Biol. Wo easily repulsed u weak hand-grenade attack directed during the night against one of the mine craters we had occupied. On both sides of La Bassee canal and northwest of Ijoos spirited hand-grenade fighting developed. In the region of Neuville and near Beuraignes we exploded several mines with good results. On the battlefields, on both sides of the Meuse Verdun region, there were very violent artillery duels. On the right bank of the river our troops from lower Saxony wrested from the French by storm positions on Steinbruch stone quarry, 700 yards south of Haudremont farm and on the ridge of hills to the northwest of Phiomont farm. Forty -two officers, including three staff officers and 1,«;56 men, were captured uuwounded. in addition to fifty wounded men. Their names will be published in the Gazette des Ardennes, in the same manner as the names of all Frenchmen who have been made prisoner in this war. The names of 711 officers and 38.155 men whom we have taken prisoner since February 21 in the battles in the Mouse district also will be published. The reason is the semi-official French attempt to cast doubt on our reports. Attacks of the enemy in and near taillette forest were frustrated by our fire when they were being prepared or when the first efforts were made. French artillery was extremely active against our positions on the Woevre plain and against those positions on the hills southeast of Verdun and as far as the neighborhood of St. Mihiel. Eastern front: Kussian attacks early this morning at the Dvinsk bridgehead on the narrow front south of Garbunovka broke down in front of our positions with heavy losses for the enemy. Says a dispatch of yesterday from London: News that the ice is now beginning to break up in the northern part of the Baltic, and that that part of the sea will be entirely free of ice in a fortnight, has been received here with great interest, for it is generally believed that the spring campaign in the Baltic is likely to bring forth many features of interest. Germany recently has MM engaged in a variety of preparations designed to isolate the Baltic from the North sea, including a complicated mine field and a huge submerged steel net to prevent the ingress into the Baltic of British submarines. The new German mines around the entrance of the Baltic are de-scriltod by Scandinavian newspapers as engines of destruction far superior to any previously encountered in this district. During the later part of last year the Bnsso-British naval activity in the Baltic began to attract attention. More than a score of steamers on their way to German ports with ore and other supplies were destroyed, while earlier in the year a German attack on the Gulf of Riga, designed to support Germanys military operations ashore was prevented from accomplishing the expected results. Since November im-l« rtant additions have been made to the Kussian fleet in this theater and naval critics here believe it is now far from a- negligible factor threatening the German left wing in the eastern theater and barring a short cut to letrograd. A Kussian naval authority in. a recent statement called the Baltic under the present circumstances "Germanys most important ami most vulnerable theater of sea warfare. When the spring offensive on land on the eastern front In-gins." this authority added, "it will certainly be accompanied by a fresh struggle for mastery in the Baltic." Secretary Baker laid before the cabinet yesterday long reports from General Pershing reviewing the whole situation on the border and in Mexico. From the state department, the president and the cabinet received an outline of the diplomatic steps taken or contemplated since the Carranza government urged the withdrawal of American troops. A decision as to what course now to pursue is to bo rea.-hed between the military and diplomatic aspects of the situation. General Funstons dispatches came last night and are the fullest discussion of his problems he yet has submitted. They contain no mention of the reported deatli of Villa. That was the only hint of their contents Secretary Baker would reveal. The substance of the messages the secretary said, was beyond the realm of public discussion at this time. It is understood that the reitorts show General Pershings men to be south now of the farthest southern point at which Villas trail has been even indefinitely located. The pursuit apparently is winging westward into the more mountainous regions. Kenewed sniping around Par-Mi was not reported to the department, although news dispatches from General Pershings c-imp disclosed that American troops had again been fired upon by Carranza troops. War department officials would not discuss the probable result of the continued hostility. It was intimated, however, that even without this new incident. General Pershing might have thought it necessary to call the departments attention to the situation very fully and to await further instruction. It was thought probable that lie would avoid any possibility of further clashes until he was advised as to the wishes of President Wilson. From General Pershings camp under date of April 17 a dispatch via Columbus, N. M. said: The American pursuit of Villa is at a standstill because of the unprovoked attack upon American cavalrymen by the insul ordinate soldiers of the Carranza garrison at larral. At General Pershings headquarters there seemed no prospect of the resumption of the chase, while there were numerous indications that a continuation of the pursuit would meet with armed resistance. A small party of American officers was fired upon near here last night, none of the Americans being injured. This coming on the heels of other reports of sniping is res]K nsible for the belief that the expeditionary command is confronted with a serious problem. A report received here from Carranza sources that a Villa colonel, captured near Cushuiriachic had promised to lead a party to a grave in which Villa was said to have been buried last Friday is generally discredit* d by military authorities here. Keports reaching here from Carranza sources said that a constitutionalist force engaged a Villa command under General Larangas within a few miles of this camp two nights ago, two Carranza soldiers and one Villa bandit being killed. It was a detachment of General Larangas force that attacked General Pershings escort train near here Tuesday night. Encouraged by the action of several steamship companies in granting the demands of seamen for advances in wages, officers of the International Seamens Inion asserted at New York yesterday that a widespread attempt to put the new wage scale into effect on every craft carrying American sailors would be made on May 1. This, they said, would apply not only to vessels in the Atlantic coast service, but to transatlantic steamships and those on tiie great lakes. In the demands for increased pay are included not only ordinary seainen, but marine engineers, firemen, oilers, coal passers, stewards, cooks and waiters. The increases obtained here have ranged almost .50 to 0 a month. Ordinary seamen obtained the greatest increase, their wages advancing to 5 a month. The waiters asked" 0 a month, firemen 5. oilers 0 and l oatswains 5. Henry Griffiue. vice-president of the International Seamens Inion, said he l elieved the movement for a wage increase would liecome international because of the great activity in shipping. The International Transport Workers Federation, with which the American seamen are affiliated, includes 500.000 shipping Workers. The French rejKirt of yesterday says: On the left bank of the Kiver Meuse there has been a bombardment of our first -line positions between I„e Mort Ilomn.e and Cumieres. On the right bank of the river the night passed in relative quiet. It has been confirmed that the German attack delivered yesterday between the Meuse and the Dona umon t region took on a character of extreme violence. Further insinuation is that this offensive action was conducted by troops belonging to five different divisions. In tin- east salient of the Chauffour VPMi the enemy penetrated our first-line trench, but from this position he was in part driven out by a counter attack. In the Woevre district there h;.s MM an artillery duel in the sector of Moulainville. South of Ban-de-Sapt. a German reconnoissance. which was endeavoring to approach the trenches in the direction of Hcrmanpere. northeast of St. Die., was repulsed with hand grenades. During the night of April 17 aeroplanes of the enemy threw down seven bombs, one of them being an incendi:ir.v initsile. on Bolfort. It has MM reported that two jmtsOi.s w«re killed ami six wounded. The material damage was not important. From letrograd yesterday a cablegram says: Having occupied the strongly fortified Turkish position on the left bank of the Kara Dere on the Turkish Black Sea coast, the Russian forces have passed the lat t of a series of natural obstacles along the coast, the defensive advantages of which had been made the most of by the Turks. Thus they have entered the immediate area of the Trebi-zond fortifications. The Russians are separated from the city of Trebizond by only sixteen miles of roadway, no part of which is considered capable of sustained defense, although since the fall of Erzerum the Turks have undertaken everything possible to perfect the defensive power of the Trebizond fortifications and increased the garrison, which now is said to contain three complete divisions. Therefore it is realized that the city will be taken only after the hardest kind of a struggle, which Is likely to outclass in stubbornness the one which resulted in the fall of Erzerum. A report on the work of the special committee of scientists appointed by the National Academy of Sciences at the request of President Wilson to investigate the Panama canal slides was presented at yesterdays session of the academy in Washington by Charles R. van Hise, president of the University of Wisconsin and chairman of the committee. The committees findings, made to President Wilson in a preliminary report, also prepared by Dr. van Hise, have already been made public. Yesterdays report reiterates the conclusion reached in the previous report that navigation through the canal is not likely again to be seriously interrupted by slides, and that realization of the great object for which the waterway was constructed is assured in the near future. Charles Hilles, chairman of the Republican national committee; James B. Reynolds, secretary, and Col. William F. Stone, of Baltimore, sergeant-at-arms, met in New York yesterday to discuss final plans for the Republican national convention. The question of how the delegates from West Virginia would be represented at the opening day of the convention, when the primaries at which they are elected are held on June 6, the day before the convention opens, was considered. West Virginia has sixteen delegates to the national convention. Chairman Hilles said that if two sets of candidates were put up for the places the national committee would probably arrange to have them all come to Chicago in time for the opening of the convention and seat those who were successful in the primaries. British lines on the south bank of the Tigris in Mesopotamia have been forced back by the Turks for a distance of from 500 to 800 yards, says an official statement given out in London yesterday by the official press bureau. The text of the official statement says: Lieut. Gen. Sir Percy Lake, commander of the British forces in Mesopotamia, reports that on the night of April 17-18 a series of heavy counter attacks were delivered on the right south bank of the Tigris. Our lines were in places forced back some 500 to S00 yards. Wolfe von Igel, secretary of Franz von Papon, former military attache to the German embassy, was arrested at New York yesterday in Capt. von Papens former office at 00 Wall street, after a fist fight with four agents of the department of justice. Von Igel was indicted yesterday with Von Papen, charged with conspiracy to blow up the Welland canal. His name had been withheld by the federal authorities until his arrest. The Inited States transport Merritt, on its way from the Philippines for San Francisco, dragged its anchor in a gale off Tientsin, China, yesterday and struck a derelict. The traus]K rts hull was damaged. Teinjtorary repairs are being made at Tientsin. The Merritt will then proceed to Nagasaki, where it will be docked for permanent repairs. A Reuter dispatch from Copenhagen to London says: A dispatch to the Kieler Zeitung from Wil-helmshaven says there was a great explosion last Friday in the new torpedo works there, a number of iKrsons being killed and others wounded. The works were recently finished and were inspected by Emperor William on February 25. The Inited States Steel corporation yesterday announced another advance in the wages of its employes amounting to ten per cent, effective May 1. This follows a ten per cent advance made in February. Botli together represent a total increase in wage payments between 0,000,000 and 0,000,000 a year. Since the outbreak of the war 3,117 non-combatants have lost th. ir lives in maritime disasters due to mines or to submarines of hostile nations, Walter Runciman, president of the board of trade, said in the house of commons at London yesterday. Of these 1,754 were seamen, 188 fishermen and 1,175 passengers. Yesterdays baseball results — National League: Philadelphia 4, Boston 0. American League: Chicago 7, St. Louis 2; Washington 4, Boston 2; New York 4, Philadelphia 2; Detroit 4, Cleveland, 3. An American hospital train recently presented to the French army arrived in Paris yesterday on its first trip from the front, bringing soldiers wounded in the recent fighting at Verdun.
