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GENERAL NEWS NOTES " OF THE DAY A slight increase in the losses of British merchantmen by mine or submarine in the last week Is noted by the admiralty statement. Fourteen vessels of more than 1,000 tons were sunk, as well as seven under that tonnage. During the previous week sixteen vessels over 1,000 tons were sunk and one merchantman, under that tonnage. Four fighting, vessels also were sunk. Since Germany began the "unrestricted" submarine warfare 1,123 British vessels have been destroyed. Three thousand marines from all parts of the republic have been mobilized in Buenos Ayres. The official explanation of this move is that it is a precaution against the threatened general strike set for January 1. It is generally believed in political circles here that the chief reason for the mobilization was to obtain- support .for the president during the period of the special -session of congress, which will open Friday. One more war investigation got started yesterday when the House -naval affairs committee appointed a. sub-committee to inquire into the whole conduct of the war by the Navy Department. This subcommittee will go to work at once, summoning Secretary of the Navy Daniels,. , all the principal admirals and bureau chiefs of the. department and subjecting them to a vigorous examination. Andrew Bonar Law, chancellor of the exchequer, introducing a vote of credit in the house of commons Wednesday, said he estimated that the present vote would carry the expenditures to the end of March,- 1918. He declared the average daily expenditure in the last sixty-three days was 0,-794,000, and .for the period since the end of the last financial year 6,686,000. Claus A. Spreckels, president of the Federal Sugar Refining Company,- testifying before the Senate manufacturers sub-committee, in the sugar investigation yesterday, said that Hoover is responsible for whatever sugar sliortage there is. He declared there is no sugar shortage "except in spots." One of the spots is -the eastern United States, he said.. General Skalon of the Russian staff committed suicide under sensational .circumstances yesterday, just prior to assembling of the Russian-German armistice conferees, according to a dispatch from Brest-Litovsk. Full details were withheld. I was stated the Russian army commander shot himself. The suicide apparently occurred at German army headquarters. Lieutenant Benjamin Walcott. son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles D. Walcott of Washington, fell in his first air flight on the western front Tuesday, and it is- feared, was killed, according to word received yesterday. An official Austrian statement reviewing the recent attack on the northern Italian front says that in the four days of fighting in the Meletta region 639 Italian officers and more than 16,000 men were made prisoners. The capture also is reported of 293 guns, 233 machine guns, four quick firers, SI mine throwers and a quantity of other materials. Britain, not Germany, started the peace feelers of last September recently mentioned by British Chancellor of the Exchequer Bonar Law, according to a German official statement received yesterday. The statement asserted that the British "feeler" was a tentative one, but was never carried through to its conclusion. Felix Calonder, vice-president of the republic and head of the department of the interior, yesterday was elected president of Switzerland for 1918. He received 170 votes. Dr. Edouard Miller was elected vice-president by a vote of 155 to 44 for Gustave Ador, president of the International Red Cross. Leon Trotzky, the Bolshevik! foreign minister, lias issued a decree dismissing all Russian ambassadors nnd their staffs because they ignored the Bolshevik! demand that they denounce the Kerensky government. "We have declared them deprived of ill further rights and pensions," Trotzky said. Demand for a coalition cabinet and a big supply division, stripped of red tape, was in sight in Congress yesterday. Sentiment for such shifts in the present war mill crystalized as a result of General Croziers amazing revelations of Americas un-preparedness for war, particularly in ordnance. The Boston and Philadelphia teams of the American league completed a gigantic trade of players yesterday at the joint meeting of the American and National leagues. The Red Sox gave Thomas, Gregg and Kopf and a sum said to be 0,000 for Strunk, Bush and Sciiang of the Athletics. Sanguinary fighting, the result of which so far remains concealed beneatli a mass of conflicting reports, was in progress at several points yesterday between Bolshevik! forces and Cossacks from the Don provinces under the leadership of General Korniloff and General Kaledines. "Porkless Saturdays" were yesterday instituted by the food administration. New "home cards" were sent to be distributed to all food pledge signers, asking that no pork products be eaten on Saturday. Patriotic citizens are asked to hang the cards in their kitchen. Leon Trotzky, the Bolsheviki foreign minister, according to a dispatch from Petrograd, announces that If an armistice for the eastern front is signed at Brest-Litovsk, the Russian delegates are em-powered to enter into peace negotiations. 4 Official German and Austrian statements say that the Russian delegates arrived at Brest-Litovsk Wednesday and the armistice negotiations have been resumed. The American schooner Horoward, with a cargo of horses, sprang a leak and sank at sea last Sunday while eu route from Cuba, a gulf port.
