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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. According to latest bulletins issued from the different war offices, the news from the fighting fronts is as follows: The French war office says: South of the Somme there was quite pronounced activity of the two artilleries in the sector of La Maisonette. An enemy detachment, which attempted to carry out a surprise attack against our trenches south of Fresnes, was repulsed. On the right bank of the Mouse our troops drove the enemy from the Chambrettes farm, which we occupy anew in its entirety after Mondays losses. We took two machine guns. The German official report in regard to operations on the Roumanian front says: In northern Dobrudja the line Ba-badagh-Pecineaga has been crossed. In the Mes-tecanescia sector, east of the Golden Bystritsa, there was a violent artillery duel. Local engagements witli varying success occurred in the Uzul valley. Hostile columns retreating to Braila were attacked by our airplane squadrons witli visible success. German naval planes on December 10 dropped bombs on Russian sea forces in the port of Sulina on the middle one of the three, estuaries of the Danube in the Dobrudja. A hostile hydroplane was shot down by machine gun fire. The Russian official communication regarding military operations on the Russian western front says: The enemy has been driven back from the trench, which he occupied yesterday in the region of Porsk. Our position is again restored. On the River Narayuvka Galicia in the region of Serbutov, our scouts dispersed a large German party and captured some prisoners. In the valley of the River Uz our troops captured possession of a ridge of heights. East of the village of Glashutte we captured several heights, three officers and 201 soldiers and one machine gun. Enemy counter attacks on the occupied heights were repelled. The Italian official communication, as intercepted by the Britisli admiralty, and made public, reads as follows: On the Trentino front the enemys artillery was rather active in the Pasubio area and on the Asiago plateau. Our batteries disturbed movements of the enemy in the upper Astico valley. On the Carso we occupied by a surprise attack a crater hole in the limestone south of Bos Comalo. Reporting on operations in Mesopotamia, the British war office says: During Saturday and Sunday General Maude extended Ills hold over the Hai river and consolidated the line Maga-sis Knli-Haji-Fahan, while the enemys positions were bombarded with good results. Cavalry reconnaissances during the day disclosed the fact that the Turks are constructing a new pontoon bridge west of the Shutran bend of the Tigris, some six to eight miles west of Kut-el-Amara. Several large parties of Arabs have been driven off by shell fire. Premier Lloyd-George has rejected the German peace proposal. The premier said in the house of commons yesterday, "that it was felt that the entente allies should know before entering on negotiations that Germany was prepared to accede- to t t ! 1 I i : 1 1 I s i i 1 , the only terms whereon it was possible for peace to hi obtained anil maintained in Europe." The speech of the Germ:in chancellor. Von Bethinanu-llollwcg, before the roiclistag was characterized by Mr. Lloyd-George .-is constituting in substance a denial of the only terms upon which peace was possible. After declaring that peace without reparation was impossible. Premier Lloyd-George asked whether "all the outrages on land and sea" hail been liquidated by "a few pious phrases about humanity." Any one who wantonly prolongs this conflict has a crime on his soul which oceans of tears could not cleanse," the premier declared, "lint any one who abandons the struggle without attaining the object would be even more guilty. Are we likely to attain our object by accepting the German proposals. To accept the proposals would be to put our heads into a noose. Historic example causes up to regard the proposal with disquiet." A mistaken bell signal given by Capt. John II. Gurney of the tug T. A. Scott, Jr., when that vessel and the German submarine Deutschland were drawing close together in the swirling waters off Race Rock in Long Island sound, caused the collision between the two vessels November 17, which resulted in the loss of the tug and its crew. This was the finding of the federal steamboat inspectors, made public yesterday. Capt. Paul Koenig of the Deutschland is exonerated from blame. Four men, in addition to Captain Gurney, were drowned. Capt. Frederick Hinsch of the German steamer Neckar, who was on the deck of the tug, was tin; only man saved fiom that vessel. Canada has begun to tear up 1,000 miles of railway to meet the needs of the war on the western front in France and Belgium, according to reports from Ottawa. The rails will be shipped to France, where they will be relaid to facilitate the movement of troops, gnus, munitions and supplies from French ports to the fighting line. Laborers are tearing up 300 miles of government railway sidings, and it has been decided to remove 220 miles of rails between Edmonton and the Pacific coast, where the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific run parallel. Traffic will be thrown upon one of these . lines. The attitude of the British government toward Germanys peace proposals was the pivot around which the stock market revolved yesterday, says a New York dispatch. Probably not within the memory of Wall streets oldest financiers has the attention of the world been so generally directed toward London as it was yesterday. Stocks were irregular at the opening, but became firm to strong at midday and decidedly stronger in the early afternoon when fragmentary extracts of the British premiers speech begun to circulate through the financial district. The Roumanian army is safe, according to news received in Paris Monday night, says the Petit Parisien. The paper says that the survivors are beyond the Seretli river at Jassy and in Bessaraiila, where they are being regrouped and refittPd in ymv of further operations. The entire Roumanian friit is to be held by the Russians alone. Puebla and Orizaba have fallen into the hands of soldiers of Felix Diaz and Jalapa is in the hands of other revolutionary forces, according to reports received yesterday by United States agents at El Paso, Tex. Skirmishing between de facto and Villa forces was reported south of Chihuahua City and near Santa Rosalia. A raid was undertaken by German troops last night on the Somme front north of Sailly-Saillisel. The announcement from the war office yesterday says the effort was without permanent success. On the Verdun front, active artillery fighting occurred in the regions of Louvemont and Chambrettes. Lack of cars to transport the 10,000 National guardsmen, who are at preseut doing duty on the Mexican border and who have been ordered sent home and mustered out of the federal service, may prevent the soldiers from reaching home in time for the holidays. From Paris a cable of yesterday said: Premier Brand announced in the senate today that the entente allies would send tomorrow a concerted reply making known "to the central powers that it is impossible to take their request for peace seriously." The will of John D. Archbold, president of the Standard Oil company, who died on December 5, lias been filed tor probate in New York. The value of the estate is approximately 0,000,000. About 200 men were entombed in the Bruceville mine, nine miles from Vincennes, at one oclock yesterday afternoon by an explosion. An hour later only ten men had been rescued.
