SERBS STILL HOLDING MONASTIR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 278, 22 November 1915, Page 5

SERBS STILL HOLDING MONASTIR.

FEARS OF BULGAR RISING IN THE TOWN. RETREATING FORCES PRESENT UNBROKEN FRONT. CBjr Cable,—Press A«9ociation.— OopTrigtt.) (Received 10.10 ajn.) LONDON, November 21. Soldiers and others who have arrived at Athens from the front report that the Serbian retreat is orderly. The Serbs have lost no prisoners, and the only guns captured were old and of little value. ' So ghastly were the Bulgarian atrocities at Pirot that the AustroGermans intervened and policed Nish to save innocent people. The "Petit Journal" states that the Serbians from. Monasfcir advanced seven kilometres towards Prilip, where the Bulgarians apparently etopped tphem. - The "Corriere Delia Sera's" Monastir correspondent states that the authorities fear a rising of the 6,000 Bulgarian inhabitants. The soldiers and gendarmes are armed with bombs in order to quell an outbreak.

SERBS' NORTHERN ARMY RETIRING TO MONTENEGRO

ALLIES URGED TO ACT QUICKLY. ITALY STILL WEIGHING THE POSSIBILITIES. ■ . ' LONDON, November 21. The Athens coi respondent of the Rome "Tribuna" says that the Bulgarians have occupied Monastir, and that the Serbians are in full retreat. German advices state that the Austro-German troops have entered Rashka, thus completing the invasion of Old Serbia. The Serbian Governmeut ■. has gone to Prizrend, a town near the Albanian frontier. A German communique states that during yesterday's successful pursuing battles, five thousand Serbians were made prisoners. An Austrian communique says that Mohammedans cheered the Austrian troops in Serbia. The German and Bulgarian advance on Prishtina is proceeding. A rvessage from Salonika states that the Bulgarians manoeuvring in the Prilip region have suspended their march on Monastir, which lies further south. A Bulgarian communique claims the capture of important points in the Babuna Pass, opening the gates to Prilip. Monastir has been captured, with 2,000 prisoners and 18 guns. The Bulgarians have also taken 300 prisoners and four guns near the Kopilick Mountain. SOUTHERN SERBS RETREAT TO ALBANIA. Military critics, summing up the position in Serbia, say the northern Serbian army is falling back into Montenegro. The southern Serbians are ' '' divided, if not surrounded, at Bubuna. They were not in effective touch with the Allies in any way, and were compelled to retreat into Albania. If Italian correspondents are right the Allies are liable to Greece's hostility when in difficulties. Within a fortnight heavy German reinforcements will reach the Near East, and the Allies must act quickly. j| Newspapers from A'icnna state that the Austrian force is in camp in the 'deep snow in the Serbian mouflains. ■ The men are suffering terribly from the cold, and the force has the greatest difficulty in keeping communication .open for tfcs bringing up of supplies.

BULGARIAN ATTACK ON FRENCH LINE FAILS. A French communique says:—"We repulsed a Bulgarian attack on our Strumnitza position, with, appreciable enemy losses." The Italian newspaper '"Messagero" states that the British and French marines who participated in the defence of Belgrade have reached Eesna, on the Albanian frontier. , The newspaper "Stampa" says that the Italian Cabinet has minutely considered the technical side of the Balkans situation, as well as its political and diplomatic advantages and disadvantages. The difficulties of an expedition in the present season would be enormous, and it would be impossible to send a large body of troops. The question of whether they would arrive in time was of the first importance. MASSACRE AND TORTURE OF THE SERBS. A French official statement says that the Serbian refugees at Salonika give the most terrible details of the atrocities of the Bulgarian soldiery, which surpass the worst horrors of 1913. All the Serbians captured were massacred, regardless of sex and age, and with the utmost refinement of torture. There were unnameable cruelties at Nish, where hundreds of women and children were burnt alive in the churches, where they had taken refuge. Not a house was left standing in Macedonia after the Bulgarians had passed.