GENERAL WAR NEWS

Southland Times, Issue 17756, 6 September 1917, Page 2

GENERAL WAR NEWS

EARLIER CABLES BRITISH ADVANCE. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, Sept. 4. Sir Douglas Haig reports; We advanced our line north-eastward of Lens. We repulsed raiders south-westward of La Bassee. THE AIR RAID. CONSIDERABLE CASUALTY LIST. LONDON, Sept. 4. British official: Six aeroplanes participated in last night’s raid. They proceeded as far as Chatham and dropped bombs on the Isle of Thanet, Sheerness and in the Chatham area. There were no army casualties, One civilian was killed and six injured. The material damage was slight. Our machines went up and aircraft guns fired without result. The Secretary for the Admiralty reports that during the raid 107 naval ratings were killed and 86 wounded. Air raiders last night reached the Chatham and Sheerness area, where 107 naval ratings were killed and eighty-six wounded. One civilian was killed and six wounded. EVACUATION OF RIGA. PARIS, Sept. 4. All public buildings in Riga bad been evacuated many months ago. The inhabitants had diminished to 100,000. It is reported that there are ten German divisions on the Riga front, intending to advance on Pskov and Petrograd. MACEDONIAN OFFENSIVE. LONDON, Sept. 4. The Petit Parisien states that the Allies have initiated an energetic offensive in Macedonia with a view to preventing the Bulgarians reinforcing the Austrians on the Roumanian front. They plan thus to relieve the Allies in Moldavia. KAISER AND THE CZAR, ANTI-BRITISH PROPAGANDA. LONDON, Sept. 4. A further instalment of telegrams between the Kaiser to the Czar has been published in the New York Herald. The Kaiser on July 29, 1905, referred to the British fleet visiting the German Baltic ports and said: “Either England is anxious owing to our meeting at Bjorko pn July, 1904, or wants to frighten me.’’ The Czar replied that he considered the Kaiser’s forthcoming visit to Copenhagen would come opportunely. A telegram from the Kaiser on August 2, 1905, gave an account of the Copenhagen visit. It shows how he tried to sound Danish opinion regarding Germany. Ho says he found the Danes very apprehensive regarding his visit, this feeling being mainly engendered by England. The Kaiser added; “I am afraid to speak to i the Danes openly lest our intentions be ‘ communicated to England. I found they j are becoming resigned to the necessity of i allowing Germany and Russia to occupy i their country if an attack is made on the I Baltic. The best policy would be to let I this idea sink into the Danish minds.’’ The Kaiser also alluded to proposed fore-gath-ering at Cowes of the Anglo-French Crimean veterans and commented: “This idea !is very delicate. Indeed it shows that I ' was right in warning you two years ago I about re-forming the old Crimea combina- ! tion.” In the course of further telegrams the Kaiser suggested to the Czar to ask the Duma to vote on the Russo-German Treaty after its formulation. He would thus bo enabled to throw on its shoulders responsibility for failure. The Czar ought also to throw thereon the responsibility of stopping or continuing the Japanese war. The Kaiser on September 29 declared that France had left Russia in the lurch during the war, whereas Germany had assisted to her utmost in putting Russia under moral obligations to Germany. He added that M. Delcasse’s indiscretions showed that an Anglo-French agreement existed. This telegram specifically states that the Kaiser and Tsar agreed to a treaty at the Bjorko meeting. The Kaiser states: The settlement of the Morocco question frees us for an understanding. We now have a good base whereon to build. We have joined hands. Signed before God the treaty can now well come into existence.” The Czar, in his letter to the Kaiser, stated; “The only way would be for Germany, Russia, and France to unite to abolish England and Japanese arrogance and insolence. Would you like to frame such a treaty? Directly we accept France would be bound to join her ally.” A month later a draft treaty was sent to the Czar, who proposed to show it to France before signature. The Kaiser immediately telegraphed: “I am convinced it would be absolutely dangerous to inform France before we both sign. Such action would be diametrically opposed to our wishes. If France knows a treaty is projected she will immediately tell her friends and there would be an instantaneous attack by England and Japan upon Germany in Europe and Asia. Their enormous maritime supremacy would make short work of my small fleet. Germany would be temporarily crippled and this would upset the equilibrium of the world to our mutual harm and throw you alone on the tender mercies of Japan and her jubilant friends.” Next day the Kaiser sent a telegram stating that there was no time to lose and that “no third party must hear any whisper of our intention, otherwise the consequences would be most dangerous.” The Czar replied agreeing that the German and Russian Governments must come to a permanent understanding. The telegrams were signed “Willy,” “Nicky” respectively. ITALY’S OFFENSIVE. ROME, Sept. 5. The Corriere Della Sera states that several thousand Austrians were concealed in caverns on the Carso Plateau, and were instructed to remain until the Italians reached the third and fourth Austrian lines, then to emerge and attack them in the rear, catching the Italians between two fires. General Cadorna, foreseeing the danger, held another force in readiness to assail the emerging Austrians. This plan proved successful, and several entire Austrian battalions were taken prisoner. A letter found on a prisoner describes the terrible scarcity of food and clothing in Trieste. There is no oil, rice, potatoes, sugar, or coffee, and very little meat. The people are dying of starvation. APPEAL FROM SERBIA. LONDON, Sept. 4. The Press Bureau announces that the i Serbian Press Bureau publishes an appeal to all the Allies to help to save the unfortunate Serbian population. The internal conditions are deplorable, as the enemy has removed the whole of the harvest, and the inhabitants have only one loaf weekly. The children are dying in thousands for lack of milk. About eighty thousand interned Serbian prisoners have perished in Austria and Hungary. GENERAL ITEMS. BERNE, Sept. 4. The Bulgarians refused to send reinforcements to Austria and relations are strained. There have been disagreements concerning Serbia, where there have been open conflicts between the Austrian and Bulgarian troops.

LONDON, Sept. 4. The Admiralty reports that naval aircraft on Sunday night bombed the docks, submarine shelters and railway sidings at Bruges, causing a fire at the lock gates of Ecluse canal. Wc bombed Varssenaere aerodrome yesterday morning. One of our machines is missing. A ship which arrived in the Tyne picked up six German war prisoners in a boat at sea. It is believed the Germans were among those who recently escaped from camps in Britain. A small boat recently disappeared from Scarborough, and it is believed to have been connected with the attempted escape. A committee of employers and men at shipyards on the Tyne has been formed to accelerate shipbuilding and avoid wastage. The Trade Union Congress at Blackpool decided against participation in the Stockholm Conference for the present by 2,849,000 to 91,000. WASHINGTON, Sept. 4. The State Department announces that the American Government will not insist on the actual abdication of the Hohenzollern dynasty as a condition of peace. The United States will judge whether any attempted reforms are bona fide and sufficiently eliminate the sinister elements known in Hohenzollemism. OTTAWA, Sept. 4. The War Time Election Bill provides for the disfranchisement of Germans and Austrians naturalised in Canada during recent years, and the enfranchisement of the wives and relatives of soldiers, and the disfranchisement of conscientious objectors. NEW YORK, Sept. 4. President Wilson sent the following message to the New York quota of the drafted troops: “My thoughts will follow you across the sea with confidence and genuine envy. I would like to be with you in the field trenches, where the real battle will be fought.”