GERMANY MAY BREAK PEACE TREATY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1276, 15 March 1918, Page 5

GERMANY MAY BREAK PEACE TREATY.

FURTHER ADVANCE INTO RUSSIA INDICATED. (A. & N.Z.) (Ree. March 13, 11.5 a.m.) ZURICH, March 14. The wireless German official agencies have circulated a dispatch from Berlin, suggesting that Germany, as the protectors of small and defenceless nations, may find it necessary to take measures to protect Russia from the Japanese. The dispatch argues that her benefaction of Courland, Esthonia, Lithuania, and Finland may be followed by the salvation of Russia from the Asiatic peril. The whole dispatch is perfidiously calculated to justify, before neutrals, Germany’s further advance into Russia in defiance of the peace treaty with Russia. ATTEMPT TO AFFECT ITALIAN MORAL. ENEMY LITERATURE DROPPED BEHIND LINES. (A. & N.Z.) (Ree. March 13, 11.3 a.m.) ROME, March 14. A squadron of enemy aeroplanes, flying over the Italian positions, dropped manifestos and illustrated journals, urging the futility of further Italian resistance. Italian and British aeroplanes immediately attacked the enemy machines, of which four were destroyed. ITALIANS CATCH SPIES RED-HANDED. GIVING INFORMATION TO ENEMY SUBMARINES. (A. & N.Z.) (Roc. March 15, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, March 14. The Milan correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle” states that Giorgio Maurogornato, a well-known and successful grain exporter, who was the Greek Consul at Leghorn, has been arrested on a charge of espionage. The authorities noticed for some time that spies were lighting a series of flares along the Tuscan coast, in order to guide the Austro-German submarines, and suspected Maurogornato of aiding the enemy by meeting the crews at the seashore at night and giving them information regarding the sailing of ships and giving them supplies. The authorities laid a trap and caught Maurogornato and his accomplices red-handed at a lonely seaside villa occupied by Maurogornato’s German mistress, who was also arrested. Maurogornato v/as recently in possession of large sums of money. FURTHER ADVANCE IN PALESTINE. FIVE MORE VILLAGES CAPTURED. (A. & N.Z. & Reuter) (Ree. March 13, 10 a.m.) LONDON, March 14. A Palestine official message says:—We slightly advanced our hue eastward of the Jerusalem-Nablus Road. The Indians on the coastal sector advanced three miles on an 11 miles’ front, capturing five villages, at two of which the enemy stubbornly resisted. RUSSIAN ASSEMBLY MEETS IN MOSCOW. ' RATIFICATION OF PEACE TREATY LIKELY. (A, & N.Z.) (Ree. March 13, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, March 14. Mr Arthur Ransome (Petrograd correspondent of the “Daily News”), reporting from Moscow, states that the Lenin Goveninient had arrived, and the All-Russian Assembly would meet on March 14 in the Halls of Nobility, where the peace treatv would probably be ratified. The business men of Moscow speak of the Germans as the saviours from the Bolsheviks. Mi Ransome acids; The Soviet Government alone stands between Germany and the realisation of her grandiose dream.” BOLSHEVIK RULE AT SEA. ATTEMPT BY SHIP’S CREW STOPPED BY OFFICERS. (A. & N.Z.) (Ree. March 13, 8.40 a.m.) WASHINGTON, March 14. Advices from Norfolk (A irginia) state that the Russian crew of the steamer Omsk seized the ship and demanded that she should be managed by a Bolshevik committee. They threatened to land the cargo of cotton in Russia instead of at Liverpool. The officers disarmed and removed the mutineers, and arrested the three ringleaders. EXORBITANT DEMANDS ON RUMANIA. ANNEXATION OF IMPORTANT SECTIONS OF COUNTRY. (A. & N.Z.) (Ree. March 13, 8.40 a.m.) WASHINGTON, March 14. Advices from Jassy state that the Central Powers are making more exorbitant demands upon Rumania, which are tantamount to annexation of important sections of the, Rumanian territory* by Austria.