THE WAR

Southern Cross, Volume 24, Issue 2, 22 April 1916, Page 9

THE WAR

Summary of Events. The Germans '. are still attacking Verdun —with the same result—a slight advance here and there at the cost of many lives. It is thought that they meditate an onslaught. on the British front, where they are concentrating a strong force. " The Russians are engaged Jin fighting with Hindenburg's forces on the northern Russian,front, the Germans sparing no effort to capture Dvinsk € • , t In the Caucasus the ■ Turks are making a desperate attempt to recapture Erzeroum, but i have been repulsed with heavy loss. The,Germans continue their submarine attacks, and more American citizens have lost their lives. President Wilson has sent another Note — described as final—to the German Government. The Italians are gaining in the conflict with the Austrian forces. A British prisoner at" Cassel (in Hanover) u e scribes in a letter the conditions there, which recall those at Wittenberg : , "The camp is overcrowded ; no one was able to wash for five months, and the sanitary arrangements are horrible. Typhus broke out- among the Russian Prisoners, and the authorities deliberately mixed up the Russians and British in order, to infect the latter. There were many deaths daily, and only the efforts of two English doctors prevented the disease wliping out the whole camp." A. crisis has arisen in the Imperial Cabinet as to the need for compulsion in the case of married men, and the resignations of several members may result. RUSSIANS CAPTURE TREBIZOND The efforts, of the Caucasian army and' the Black. Sea fleet have been crowned by the capture of Trebizond, the most important fortification on the Anatolian coast, after a sanguinary battle. Long converging roads will enable the Russians to turn the whole front to Erzingan, where the main Turkish concentration is. The possibilities of . revictualling the armies by sea, instead of by.difficult mountain defiles will enormously lighten the Russian commissariat. ARRESTS IN AUCKLAND. Paul Hansen, ex-D a nish consul at Auckland, and Dr. ' Endletsberger, have been arrested by the military authorities. COMPULSORY SERVICE. Mr Asquith is to make a statement on this vexed question next Wednesday. Failing a- settlement, Messrs Lloyd George and Bonar Law and other Unionist members of the Cabinet will probably resign.