GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1916, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS.

, NOTES FROM THE TIMES. I BEET SUGAR. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, Feb. 11. The restriction of sugar imports has revived the beet-growing movement. Publicists are pointing out that the principal farmers could ensure complete British supplies by planting five acres of beet. IN ALSACE. London, Feb. 11. The frontier between Germany and Switzerland is tightly closed. There is a constant procession of trains transporting guns and troops to Alsace. The Crown Prince has arrived near the frontier. AUSTRIAN'S IX ALBANIA. ' | London, Feb. 11. A Serbian communique states that the Austrians are continuing to march on iDurazzo. On the 14th a mountain brigade, with armed Albanian bands, attacked our rearguards, first on the Ischemi fiver, and next day, after violent and bloody fighting, wc occupied Blaama, but the enemy pressed us back. We were reinforced, attacked during the night, and reconquered the positions and put the enemy to flight. The battlefield was covered with the bodies of the enemy. CAMPAIGN AGAINST EGYPT, *■ ; London, Feb, 11. The Times' Salonika correspondent flays it is reported, on excellent authority, that Djemal Pasha enjoys absolute independence in his Syrian command, unlike the German-ruled officers elsewhere. Djemal categorically refused to move against Egypt until he had a minimum of 25,000 German soldiers and a large and well-found Turkish army available. Djemal frankly refuses, after the terrible hardship of the last expedition, and asserts that the Germans should share the trials and sufferings of the offensive. POSSIBLE TRANSFER OF BULGARS. London, Feb. U. Mr. Ward Price says that Bulgar officers on the frontier informed Greek officers that their units would shortly be transferred to the Roumanian frontier.