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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. A dispatch of yesterday from Paris says: The attack launched by the Austrian* against the Italian front in the southern Tyrol, which has gradually extended to the entire Austro-Italian front, is being followed here with close attention. It is generally believed in military circles that the great Austrian offensive which has been expected for some time has at last begun. French military authorities are satisfied that the Austrian* are doomed to failure regardless of what efforts they may make. It is pointed out that the Italians have made every possible preparation for just such an attack as the present and that the most powerful defenses that engineering skill could devise have been prepared on the Asiago plateau and In the mountains northwest of Arsiero. It is on this line that the Italians are expected to make their real stand in the event the Austrian* continue to push their offensive. From the Tonale Pass region in western Trentino to Monfalcone. a short distance from the head of the Gulf of Trieste, the Aus-trians are vigorously on the offensive. In Tyrol south of Trent heavy Infantry attack* east of the Adige river have forced the Italians again to abandon some of their advanced positions and resulted in the capture by the Austrian* of an aggregate of 141 officers and 0,200 men. In addition thirteen guns and seventeen machine guns were captured. Vienna says that south of Rovereto the Austrians stormed Zegnatorta, but Rome asserts that the five attacks launched were put down with heavy casualties, the bodies of numerous dead Austrians floating away in the swift current of the Adige river. In deciding upon the increase of the navy, the house naval committee yesterday voted to abandon the five-year building program recommended by Secretary Daniel* and to recommend that five battle cruisers to cost 0,433,331 each, four scout crullers, ten torpedo-boat destroyers, twenty tub- marines, on" hospital ship one oil supply ship and one ammunition supply ship to be built during the 1917 fiscal year. The committee voted 13 to and on battle cruiser* ind submarines The committee struck out the battle ships, the gunboat and five destroyers, but added three battle cruisers, one scout cruiser, one ammunition ship and one oil fuel ship. The bill, which may be tken up in the house next week, carries a total appropriation of approximately 50 000,000. as ag:yinsi. 30,000.-000 for the current fiscal year. The five battle cruisers are to be a* powerful and swift as any afloat. They will carry ten 14-inch guns, have thirty-five knots speed, 180.000 horse power and cost 0,433,531 each completed. Of the twenty submarines, three are to be of MsVhm displacement and the other seventeen of such type and design as the navy department may detirmine. The committee agreed that eight of the smaller submarine* and four of the destroyers shall be built on the Pacific coast, provided that the cost shall not be greater than on the Atlantic coast. Germany, through Count von Bernstorff, has instructed all German consuls in the Inited States to admonish German citizens in their district* to scrupulously observe American laws. This was done in an effort to end various alleged violations of American neutrality. The ambassador acted on instructions from the Berlin foreign office. The action was announced yesterday in this official statement from the German embassy: "In consequence of cases which have occurred of late, the German ambassador has sent instructions to all German consuls In the United States to strongly impress upon German citizen* living in their districts tlmt it is their duty scrupulously to obey the laws of the state in which they reside." It was said at the German embassy that the instructions were designed to prevent plots or lawlessness on the part of German citizens who might bo disposed to en-gige in such. The Gorman government, it was said, looks witli great disfavor upon any such conduct and desires that they shall not engage in any undertaking in any way outside the law. Jeremiah Lynch, of Now York, ha* been tried and convicted by a court-martial in Dublin on a charge of participating in the Irish rebellion. The sentence/was to be promulgated yesterday, but no word has* been received by the American embassy at Loudon as to what sentence was imposed. The news that Lynch had been convicted by a court-martial was received by the embassy from the American consul in Dublin. Previous to this the last new* the embassy had of Lynch was that under the defense of the realm act he was prohibited from leaving the five mile zone of Dublin. This provision, as a rule, only applies to hostile aliens, but can be extended to friendly aliens. It was extended to Lynch. :.s he had Iwcn making trips to western Ireland. Lynch was a resident of Dublin for some time. The Swedich crisis has passed, and the activist uttemyt to force u situation which would plunge the country into war has failed. Sweden will remain firmly and impartially neutral. The government now feels no alarm concerning Russias activity in fortifying the Aland Islands, lying off the east coast of Sweden between the Gulf of Pothni.i and the Baltic Sea. Reassuring statement* to this effect were made in both clnmhers of the riksdag. The announcement by Foreign Minister Wollenberg of the governments position was followed by statements from the leaders of the socialist, liberal and conservative parties in which confidence in the government was expressed. Plans for reorganization of the Atlantic fleet, which will be announced shortly by Secretary Daniels, include the retirement of Admiral Fletcher as commander-in-chief. Vice Admiral Henry T. Mayo, now commander of the first division of the fleet, with hi* flag on the Arkansas, will succeed Admiral Fletcher as commander-in-chief. Admiral Fletcher automatically returns to his line rank of rear admiral and probably will be assigned to important stragetic work. Rear Admiral Dcwitt Coffman. one of the division commanders of the fleet, will become vice admiral. All the changes become effective June 19. Admiral Fletcher hus completed his term as commander-in-chief. Several attacks were made by German troops on the Verdun front Wednesday night in an effort to capture a redoubt at Avocourt. The official statement of yesterday says the Germans were repulsed each time and that they lo*t heavily. French troops, after severe fighting, captured a German fort on the northeast slope of Hill 304. Three Germ-in trenches north of Hill 1 .7 Were railed by French force* which killed or captured the occupant* of these positions. On the Verdun front east of the Meuse the artillery on both sides was active during the night. Two French aeroplanes dropped eighty more shells on the railway station at Metz on the night of May It!. Yesterdays baseball results— National League: Chicago 4. Brooklyn 3: Philadelphia 3. Pittsburgh 0; Cincinnati 3, Boston 2; New York 3, St. Louis 0. American League: Philadelphia 5. Chicago 1; St. Louis 7. Boston 1; Cleveland 4, Washington 2. American Association: Toledo ." , St. Paul 0: Indianapolis 8, Milwaukee 4; Columbus 3, Minneaiwli* 2. An official dispatch from Italian headquarters at Idine reports that Austrian aeroplanes are displaying great activity and have made several attacks on towns in the vicinity of Venice. It is stated that these attacks have caused insignificant material damage, that no lives have been lost and no military results accomplished. A British official communication admits the loss of a small monitor as a result of the fire of Turkish batteries. The monitor was reported as having been set on fire in a Turkish official statement Tuesday. The British admiralty denied the statement, but says later advice* confirm the Turkish rei ort issued at Constantinople. An earthquake of particular violence has occurred in Italy aloug the Adriatic coast between Rimini and Cesen.i. At the latter town a dozen people were injured. The entire central section of Italy wa* shaken by repeated earthquakes, which lasted through Tuesday and Wednesday. An Amsterdam dispatch say* that three hundred thousand Austrian troops, concentrated on a thirty-live mile front, are striking against the Italian line* in th" Tyrolene Alp* in the most determined Austrian offensive against Italy since the war began.
