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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY A London dispatch of yesterday says nil the remaining stages of the man-power bill were concluded today by both the commons house of parliament and the jieers, and the royal assent was given the measure. The bill includes: Conscription for Ireland: elevation of the army age to 50 years and in some cases to 55; combing out of industries to secure men. heretofore exempt, for war servh-c. Conscription of Ireland is expected to add 161,000 men to the fighting forces. Altogether, it is estimated, from 495.000 to 600,000 men will be brought into the militant lines. Chancellor of the Exchequer A. Bonar Law, replying to a query in the House of Commons, declared he exacted that Irish conscription would lie enforced before August 1. The leaders of the Nationalists in Ireland, including the Redmonites, who are now led by John Dillon, the Sinn Fciners, OBrienites, Laborites and Clericals, are united in their determination to resist conscription "by the most effective means at our disposal." which is the wording of a resolution passed at a meeting of bishops at Maynooth Thursday. British troops are standing firm before strong enemy attacks on the front north of Arras, while southeast of Amiens the French have driven the Germans back iu the region of Catsel. The heaviest fighting on the northern front is on the southern side of the salient from St. Venaut, west of Mer-ville. to Givcncliy. On this eleven-mile front the Germans are using ten divisions, or about 137, INN men. Canture of most of the Messines-Wytschaete ridge by the Gentians did not seriously weaken tin-British position, as Field Marshal Haig outwitted the enemy by withdrawing his lines northeast and east of Ypres. Iu this region the Germans are floundering iu mud, while efforts to turn the British line south of Yores by taking Kemmel Hill have failed with severe "losses. Twice Thursday the Germans threw large forces against this hill, but each time were thrown back in sharp encounters. Intense fighting and artillery duels continue here and westward toward Metereii. Rheinis. which has been on fire for a week, is now nothing but a great pile of smoking ruins. During the last week the Germans have fired more than 100.000 shells into the heart of the city, according to the corresnondeut of Le Matin, and flames from the burning buildings can be seen by aviators sixty and seventy miles away. There are no traces of streets and" thoroughfares, which have disappeared from view under the accumulation of debris. Ancient buildings in the Place Royale and the market place and the Musicians Home, which dates from the sixteenth century, have been reduced to debris and ashes. The vaulting of the famous Rheims Cathedral, the correspondent says, is falling stone by stone, ami so ,., there will be nothing left of the edifice but the west front and the pillars. Shells are still bursting all around the building. The |Hilitical situation in Austria-Hungary remains extremely delicate, according, to an official dispatch to Washington from Switzerland, summarizing reports from Budapest and comment in Austrian and German newspapers. Austria, the report said, is coming to the greatest difficulties; security no longer exists and the situation "is capable of any possibility." Marked discontent reigns in Vienna, according to the dispatch, while speeches delivered in Parliament by the Czechs, Jugo-Slavs and Poles inspire hatred of Germany and demand reorganization of Austria -Hungary. Late news yesterday afternoon from the western fighting front say the French made decided gains over a five mile stretch. The dispatch reads: The French administered a sharp setback to the German forces, which since the great push have been hammering away relentlessly in an attempt to get astride the railroad i-onnecting Amiens with Clermont. The attack was carried out brilliantly. It began at dawn along a front extending about five miles between Thennes and Mailly Raineval. Tlie activities of the German military authorities In suppressing propaganda at home an- shown in the following quotation from a German bulletin received at Amerk-an headquarters in France: "Baron Von Gayl, general commanding the Seventh German army corps in Muenster, offers 3,000 marks 30 to the lierson who first succeeds in implicating an English or American agent guilty of inciting disturbances or revolutions in this district in such a manner that he may be condemned by a court." Says a Tokyo dispatch of Thursday: Those in Japan who favor Japanese intervention in Siberia found no encouragement in the words of Viscount Yasuya, Ichida, former ambassador at Washington, who, on his return hen- from his post as ambassador to Russia, expressed doubt as to the wisdom of entering Siberia at this time. His conviction was that Bolshevism today represents the thought of a great majority of the Russian people. The Quartermaster Generals Department is pre. paring equipment for an army of 2.500,000 in tin-field by the end of 1918, it developed yesterday. Estimates for Congress provide an increase of 1.000.000 men in the armed forces during the next fiscal year. The House Military Committee met with War Department officials yesterday and received a summary of the estimates. It is rumored in the House of Commons that Lord Northcliffe contemplates resigning the two positions he occupies under the government as head of the British -American mission and director of enemy propaganda as a protest against the inclusion of Austen Chamberlain in the cabinet, says a cable from London yesterday. The administration silver bill, introduced by Senator Pittman, of Nevada, providing for the with-ilrawal from the treasury of 50,000,000 in silver dollars to be melted into bullion to meet foreign trade balances, was passed Thursday by the Senate without a roll call. The bill goes to the House. It was learned late yesterday that Italian regiments already are in France and form the right wing of the allied armies.
