WAR NEWS BY MAIL

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 238, 5 October 1916, Page 4

WAR NEWS BY MAIL

OUR AMERICAN BUDGET.

100 SUBMARINES NETTED.

THREE SPIES SHOT IN CANADA.

(Special to "Star.") SAN FRANCISCO, August 28. Although the Canadian authorities have sequestrated several thousand Teutons who were in the Dominion when the war commenced, there has been evidence of intrigrae on many occasions. Many daring schemes have been discovered, and plots have been frustrated by tfte keen services of eecret agents posted all over Canadian territory. The detection, capture, and execution of three German spies in Canada, masquerading as sisters of a religious order, formed the body of a thrilling etory detailed by a New YoTk banker on his return from a visit to Quebec. "They went one night," he said, "to the Chateau Froatenac for dinner Their presence there was the subject of much comment. It was noticed that their wrists were heavy, 6trong, and hairy. The three 'sisters' were arrested. The next discovery was that the prisoners had collected a, vast amount of official information valuable to the Germane. The masqueraders were shot."

HUNGARY'S YOKE. Proofe are repeatedly reaching the United States that Hungary is smarting under the yoke of German domination, and is anxious for independence. Therij are several races in Hungary, too, who are virtually of Slav origin, and they face the Russians only ia half-hearted fashion, refusing to fight against their kith and kin. Assertions nave been brought td America by travellers returning from a trip / through the Austrian empire that in several instances whole regiments of Hungarians of Slav origin I have refused t6 fire a shot against the Russians, v and have surrendered to th 2 Czar's troops. An illuminating insight into the actual state of affairs in Hungary is furbished through the medium of a lengthy cablegram sent by Andre Beaumont from Milan to a Xew York newspaper in the following terms:-—"Scenes in the Hungarian Chamber since its reopening, when Count Karolyi, Amid cheers of the new party, made, an appeal for Hungarian independence against German interference, 'have been ever increasing in vk> lence. As the Russians are approaching closer to the Hungarian frontier, patiifc is spreading among the deputies, who smart under the Government's fiysteav atic concealment of the facts. The fall of Gorizia was not revealed until & re'iport had become public. Some deputies followed Count Andrassy into the lobbies, and insisted upon knowing the truth, but all they obtained from him were! vague replies. On the following cfriy * furious speech was made by Deputy Ger.a Tolonyi, who asserted that the G6Vernment was trifling with the Chamber by asking it to discuss the question of taxes when Hungary's enemies were pounding at their doors, and while the Chamber was not informed of events unparalleled in Hungary's history. He Went on: '14 the great historical epoch of the thir.l year of the war, a sudden change k made in the high command of our army, which is no longer Under a Hungarian,' nor even under an Austrian general, but under a German marshal. Is it to ithit that Austria-Hungary has how tfome? It is a shocking fact, and the nation must know who is responsible. Even the mOst self-denying alliance has its limits. It will put us before the world and before history as a nation no longer capable dl having a general for its army. Worse stilL the Austrd-Hungarian empire no .longer has a man fit for its supreme rcoinmand, since the combined armies of both branches Of the empire have been entrusted to a foreign subject. The rights of our nation's sovereignty have i'been handed over without even asking the consent of the Hungarian Parliament. What are we here for? Have the Hungarian deputies and nation n6 riglit to decide the nation's destinies?"

WOULD FIGHT AMERICA. The "Chicago Herald" on August 24 printed i£ie following interesting die* patch from Washington: "Grand Admiral *6n Tirpitz, author of the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare upon merchant craft, has issued a manifesto demanding war with the U.S. Information to this effect has been received by the State Department, aad ha* caused considerable concern to the officials. Yon Tirpitz insists in his statement that Germany is handicapped in the prosecution "of her life and death struggle by the limitations imposed upon submarine operations by the German Government at the instance of the United States. He argues that thit country in any case is hostile td Ger* many, and that the time haa gone by tA consider its wishes. He believes should the United States enter the War On the side of the Allies it ■would do no more narur to the German cause than, it already has done.

"The text of the Tirpitz toembrandum was published by the Berlin newspapers. The foreign correspondent* were not permitted to transmit it to their papers. As a consequence only the neutral diplomats have been able to forward it by cipher messages and in their Official mail pouches. It is not believed by the authorities that the Kaiser will permit himself and his Government to be influenced into the adoption of a hoetile policy toward the United States. Nevertheless it is considered highly eignifieant that the Paper's were permitted t6 publish the Yon Tirpiti manifesto, and that at the same time tine German authorities gave to the Press the fact that the American Government had made confidential inquiries in regard to a submarine attack on the American steamer Owefco.

"According to the information in possession of the authorities in Washingtbn a German submarine discharged tea shots at the Owego when she Was in the vicinity of the English Channel. Theee shot* -were not fired as a warning, and the Owego was making no attempt to escape. Fortunately none of the shots took effect. The President deemed it expedient to call the attention of the German Government to this violation of its assurances given last May, not with the design to pave the way to a claim for redress, but in order to chow America's purpose to hold Berlin to strict compliance with the pledges made.

Tfc6 oa*e Of the Owego is due 6f a number -which hae come to the attention of the State Department in which German submarines appear to have acted in reckless disregard of the humane policy announced by their Government, la none of the cues except

the Owego has American Mc or V™!**** been affected. Therfcfora it fci» W>t been Saary to make general reprteeftta- * Germany has now been acted twice for an explanatibn 6f the Owe«d iteuUAt, but professes to nothing of it 100 SPBMARPna_ JOSTBOYED. M6ie than one hundred German sub- i marine, have been destroyed Or captured by the British Navy patrol m the EnglUh Channel or estuary of the thames. Capt. Thomat Blatt, a «iharact*riatie Frenchman, who coßunaaded the liner Korea, which wa. mnaiag New York and London utttil last July, made this assertion whilst on a vieit to San Francisco. He haa a fund ef war information hitherto unpuhbehed. Germany has the baOding Of enb- i marines down to ftuch an art tijat one is completed in fire w«ke, »ad eeveral always are in oauxee *£ coaetruction, save Capt. Blau, who hM fcrought the Korea from London through Aβ Panama Canal to San Francieeo, wh«e tihe great steamer has been banded over- to a Japanese company. . ! In the court* of an iatevie*, Captain Blau aaid:—"Zeppelin raids haye faUeu to' damage any important military or oaval establishments or bases, because the great airships have to fly at. not less than 10,000 ft, and the raideie are blinded by the enormou* searchlights from below and cannot locate important targets. British naval experts have invented submarine "listeners', something like large bell-buoys, for-det«cting the sound of a ' submarine motor up to <tft*ta miles distant. When a 'listener , ha* approximately located a submarine in the English Channelfive or sir torpedo boats surround it, each paying out a long eteel wire line with a live tdTpedo on its end. Each boat lays a, zigzag eouree at great speed, thereby whipping thi torpedoes to and fro through tile Water. More Often than not there ia an explosion caused by contact of torpedo and Ueri man U-boat.' "Between . Boulogne a»a ! FolJiestone the sea it Iseined , for German submarines throughout all tile thirty miles except a narrow lane or water, no wider than four or five etty blodcs, Which is buoyed on the Surface for merchant and paseenger ships."

BBEUSN TAKEN XV STEEL KET. . The feat of the G«rmaa trubmarme Deutschland making the double trip between Germany and the United States has been soihewhat stultified by the mystery surrounding the sister commercial submersible Bremen, which, with a great characteristic flourish <6f trumpets, German-Americans had heralded ac being due to arrive "in a few days" in some phantasmagoric American port On a similar errand to the fieUtsenland. Week after week passed, and then.even the patience Of the Teutons in America.-be l gan to flag. Various raaaours had gained currency in the United Sftatea that tht Bremen was not likely to arrive in American -waters at all, aft it had be66me a victim to the ever»wat£u&g warsaips of the British Navy. The arrogant section of Germans had pooh-poohed these report* until August 25, when an office* of the British merchant marine arrived in New York aboard the White Star steamship Baltic, and was authority for the statement that the Bremen had been captured by the British and 33 of her crew of 35 made prisoners. The teuton-Americans were disconsolate; and much of the wind was taken out of their feaiU. The Bremen, according to the account, waa captured in the Straits of Dover in a Steel net on August 2. Two members of her crew lost their lives. The Bremen, it'was said, while enmeshed in the net, was Sighted by a British patrol Mat-, her stern under water and her bow high above the surface. After endeavouring for a time to extricate the . wreck, the patrol Boat steamed for Dover with her prisoners. According to the offioer, .feho desired that his identity should not be disclosed, the British Government has maintained silence in regard to the capture, as another German transatlantic submarine, the Amerika., This eaid to be on the way to the United States, and it was hoped t6 capture her also. , ' WHAT'S IK A KAMEI A German settlement in Ontario, rejoicing in the unenviable name of Berlin, hat been the subject of much debate recently, and the Canadian authorities *ere -petitioned, -with, iiie Tesult that an order-in-council wae passed in Toronto, changing the place-name to Kitchener.