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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAT. A dispatch of yesterday from Washington says: Maj.-Gen. Hugh L. Scott, chief of staff of the army, will go to San Antonio, Texas, tonight by order of Secretary Baker in order to. get accurate information as to the situation on the lxirder and in Mexico. Secretary Baker issued this statement: "General Scott leaves for San Antonio tiiis evening at 0:15 at my request. He will pass several days with General Funston and return. This trip is made solely for the purpose of getting as accurate information as is possible for the use of the department. General Funston remains in full charge of the affairs of his department, including the ex-►edition into Mexico. He has the full confidence of the department and his dispositions have the departments entire approval." Secretary Baker would not discuss General Scotts mission beyond his formal statement. It was assumed, however, that his report will go far toward determining the course to be pursued in Mexico. It is known that General Funston has been urging the department that he be i»ermitted to shift his headquarters and the border base in order to shorten his line of communications. The department has not thus far approved the suggestion, although the request was l»efore the cabinet yesterday. The department apparently has hesitated to authorize any radical change" in the status of the expedition in the face of the requests from General Carranza that the troops lie recalled, believing it might tend to increase anti-American feeling among Carranza garrisons. For the same reason the sending of heavy reinforcements to the border has not been resorted to as yet. Cntil the German situation is clearly understood it is impossible to forecast the administrations decision as to Pershings expedition. Military observers apjx-ar to agree that some radical move must lie made soon, either to back up the troops in Mexico or to withdraw them, as in their present condition officers feel they are unable to press the pursuit of Villa properly and their presence only serves to irritate the Mexican iieople. A movement of Carranza troops which have been stationed near Chihuahua to Parral was reported to the state department. This information was forwarded to General Funston. It came from Consul Letcher. From Petrograd yesterday a dispatch says: The fall of TreMsond to the Russian arms is confirmed in an official commucication issued here. The statement says: TTCtSBStSSl has been taken. The united, energetic efforts of our Caucasian army and Black Sea fleet have Im-cii crowned by the conquest of this fortified town, the most imiMirtaut position on the Anatolian const. Our valiant troops, after the sanguinary battle of the 14th on the Kara Dere river, pressed the Turks without respite and surmounted Incredible obstacles, everywhere breaking the fierce resistance of the enemy. The well-combined action of the fleet permitted the execution of most hazardous landing operations and lent the support of its artillery to the troops operating in the coastal region. Credit for this fresh victory Also is partly due the assistance given the Caucasian army by the troops operating in other directions in Asia Minor. By their desperate fighting and heroic exploits they did everything in their power to facilitate the task of the detachments on the coast. Trebizond is 600 miles east of Constantinople and 100 miles north of Erzerum, the town stormed by the Russians on February 16. Trebizond has a population of about 40,000, including some 18,000 Christians. The importance of the Black Sea port is due to its command of the point where the chief trade route from Persia and central Asia descends to the sea. It is separated from the rest of Asia Minor by a barrier of rugged mountains 7,000 to 8.000 feet high, which the Russian armies had to traverse. Since the fall of Lrzerum and the capture three weeks later of Bitlis the Turks are said to have increased the Trebizond garrison until it contained three complete divisions, or about 54,000 men, and to have done everything possible to strengthen the Black Sea port. President Wilson told congress, assembled in joint session shortly after 1 oclock yesterday afternoon, he had given Germany irrevocable notification that the United States will break off diplomatic relations if her illegal submarine campaign is continued. A note. Americas last word, practically an ultimatum, and demanding an immediate reply, presumably was in the Berlin foreign office as the president was speaking. The president asked no action whatever of congress. He simply informed it of the accumulation of facts proving that Germanys assurances to the United States are being violated; that the submarine campaign, despite the earnest protests of the United States is being conducted with renewed vigor in contravention of all the laws of nations and humanity and that he means to sever relations unless it is brought within the law. Diplomatic history of the world shows that such a course is almost certain to be followed by war. The presidents note and his address to congress are final. They mark the end of diplomatic exchanges. A continuance of the long standing friendly relations, the president made clear, de-] ends alone upon Germanys conduct. I have deemed it my duty, therefore, the president told congress, to say to the imperial German government, that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare . . the government of the United States is at least forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue; and that unless the imperial German government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels, this government cun have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations altogether. The French official statement of yesterday said: There was a spirited bombardment of positions south of Haudremont wood, on the Verdun front, east of the Meiise, last night, the war office report of this afternoon says. No other important event occurred on any part of the front. The statement follows: There was no event of importance last night excepting a rather violent blast east of the Meuse in the region south of Haudremont wood. Of other events the Paris dispatch said: Paris received with great enthusiasm the news of the fall of Trebizond. The event was looked for, but it was not thought the Russians would be able to capture the city so quickly. The political as well as the military consequences are expected to be most important, particularly in view of the fact that Turkey has lost one of the most valuable parts of Asia Minor at a time when, according to the reports reaching Paris, Germany is weakening her forces in the Balkans to carry on attacks on the western front. French military writers state that the plan of campaign of Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian commander, was a daring one, which at first was looked upon as foolhardy, but npw is fully justified. The grand duke advanced boldly to the attack while the other fronts were still held in deadlock. Excluding the operations on the Persian front, Grand Duke Nicholas in this campaign against an ex-IHTienced and stubborn foe, has to his credit the storming of ten cities in less than two months. A destructive fire in Belgrade, formerly the capital of Serbia, is reported in a dispatch to the Matin from Bukharest. It is said the eastern section of the city was almost destroyed. Several hundred houses were burned and thousands of persons are home less. Says a London dispatch of yesterday: The news of the fall of Trebizond, which comes much earlier than had been expected, because it was believed the three Turk divisions would make a stubborn defense, is believed here to have been largely due to the successful employment of the Russian fleet. Since the brilliant dash of the cruiser Midullu formerly the Breslau, nearly a fortnight ago, the Turks, aware of the inferiority of their Black sea fleet to that of the Russians, have not undertaken any serious naval operations for the defense of Trebizond. The fall of Trebizond, it is thought, probably will involve the speedy loss to the Turks of Erzingan, Karput and Diarbekr, and the fall of these towns would completely isolate the Turkish armies in Mesopotamia. A Renter dispatch from Saloniki says the Germans crossed the Greek frontier on Monday in the neighborhood of Doiran and destroyed railway culverts, apparently fearing an advance of the entente allies. The appointment of Senator Garin and General Froloff, formerly commander of the Ietrograd military district, as Russian tinder-secretaries for war, is taken here to indicate an acceleration in the campaign against graft in the Russian army. Senator Garin, who is the first civilian to hold high office in the Russian war department, is a well-known opponent of graft. Ernest Schiller, alias Clarence R. Hudson, who recently held up the captain and crew of fifty-six men of the British freighter Matoppo on the high sea, was on his way yesterday to the federal prison at Atlanta in custody of United States marshals. Schiller pleaded guilty to a charge of piracy and was given a life sentence. Before leaving Wilmington. Del., Tuesday night, Schiller in a statement declared that his desire for revenge against England had prompted his act. At the same time, he said, he hoped to do something "for the cause of Germany." He denied that robbery had boon his motive, and said that the chief reason his plan to sink the Matopi o had failed was because he did not want to kill anybody. When I took charge of the ship, lie said, it was so rough that it would have been murder to have forced the crew to get out in small boats, as I had at first intended them to do. Schiller said he was highly pleased that he was not being sent back to England. The army reorganization bill, passed by the senate Tuesday night, went to the house yesterday, where a conference probably will be asked for on the measure. The bill is a substitute for the Hay bill passed by the house and as finally approved without a record vote would produce regular army and reserve forces in the United States aggregating 1,000,000 men. The bill was hurried through the senate amid exciting scenes after a joint session of the two houses had been called for yesterday to hear an address by President Wilson on grave international issues. AH attempts to reduce the pro-l osed increases in the army were rejected in quick succession. The bill differs radically from the house measure. On that account it was regarded as practically certain that a conference would be asked and that work of perfecting a new army measure would begin promptly. Three men. said to be Germans, but whose names were not given by officials, were arrested at Har-deeville, S. .. at the request of Lieut. A. P. Cronkrite. United States Engineer Corps, who suspected them of espionage. A search of the prisoners, it was said, revealed that they were in possession of maps giving minute details of fortifications and roads in that section of the coast. They carried an elaborate photographic outfit. A charge of vagrancy was changed to "t eiiig suspicious characters" when each of the three produced ,000 to disprove the vagraut charge. Lieut. Cronkrite is making military maps and gathering other data along the south Atlantic coast and the three foreigners are said to have been following him. A Lloyds dispatch from Lisbon to London says the Norwegian steamship Terje Viken sank on Monday in Cascas Bay, fifteen miles west of Lisbon, after three explosions on board the vessel. The crew was saved. The Terje Viken sailed on March Hi from Galveston for Lislion. She was 335 feet long. 3,579 tons gross, was built in Newcastle in 1913 and owned ill Tousberg. The German war report of yesterday says: Western theater: East of the Meuse our troops during the night captured the stone quarry south of Haudremont farm, thus oouipleteing the success of Monday. A great part of the occupants fell in a fierce bayonet engagement. More than 100 men and several machine guns fell into our hands. A French counter attack against the new German lines northwest of Thiaumont farm failed. Minor enemy infantry detachments, which attempted to approach our trenches at several points, were repulsed by our infantry and by hand-grenade attacks. Eastern theater: There have been heavy artillery duels and patrol engagements in the northern sector of the front. The British order making German bunker coal liable to seizure has caused consternation to Dutch shipping circles because they largely use German coal as the English product is not obtainable in sufficient quantities. Dutch coal is deficient in steam raising qualities. The new measure affects steamers plying between Holland and North America to a lesser degree because they will be able to fill their bunkers at American ports, although they will lose ten per-cent. of their cargo space, taking on enough coal for a double voyage. It especially affects, however, ships voyaging to South American iwrts and the Dutch colonies. Insurance underwriters at New York have advanced from one per cent to 2 per cent the war risk rates on shipments from New York to Bor-deux and other ports in the Bay of Biscay. This resulted chiefly from the sinking of the British steamer Harrovian in the Bay of Biscay, by which it is estimated American underwriters suffered a loss of ,500,000. Rates of war risk on shipments to the United Kingdom also were increased, but less radically. The rate to London has advanced one per cent within ten days, but has not reached three per cent. It was the state departments intention to give out the note to Germany for publication Thursday morning, but later the plan was changed and it was decided to give it out as soon as it could be copied. Officials indicated it might be available about four oclock. Its text is about 5,000 words, including an appendix of -,500 words. Yesterdays baseball results — National League: Brooklyn 7, New York 3; Philadelphia 6, Boston 5. American League: St. Louis 6, Chicago 2; New York 2, Philadelphia 1; Boston 2, Washington 0; Washington 3, Boston 2 morning game.
