THE WAR.
ROUMANIA TO JOIN ALLIES.
FURTHER RUSSIAN SUCCESSES.
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 14rn, 1935.
SERIOUS OUTBREAK OF EPIDEMIC DISEASE IN AUSTRIA,
RUMANIA TO JOIN IN THE GENERAL.
WAR.
LONDON, January 13th.
7.40 8.m.
The Times correspondent at Sofia státes" that even should Italy remain neutral, Rumania has decided to enter the Concert of the Entonte Powers in the middle of February.
FRANCO-BELGIAN FRONT.
(THROUGH REUTER'S AGENCY.] -GERMAN PILLAGERS ROUTED.
LONDON, January 19th.
6.30 p.m. To-day's Paris communiqué says:---- From the Sea to the Dise There have been fairly vigorous cannonades.
There has been very lively fighting to the north of Soissons, around the trenches captured by us. The enemy several times took the offensive, but was repulsed. We took fresh sections of treaches.
There have been artillery duels from Soissons to Rheims. Our heavy guns were most effective. Our artillery was also very accurate in the district around Sousin.
The Beau Sejour redoubt was the scene of a desperate struggle. The enemy succeeded in establishing himself in a treach inside the redoubt, of which we told the salient. The struggle continues.
[THROUGH REUTER'S AGENCY.} VIENNA'S INTOLERABLE
PLIGHT. EPIDEMIC DISEASE RAMPANT.
LONDON, January 13th.
2.45 a..
A telegram from Venice says that the conditions in Vienna are intolerable. Small-pox, cholera, and typhoid fever are raging, and numerous cases have been reported from all parts of Austria. The price of four has tripled, and butter has advanced to double price, while delicacies are unobtainable.
A crowd of fúgitives are arriving at Vienna from Bukhovine. Hundreds of destitute persons, mostly Jews, are stranded on the Roumianian frontier on the verge of starvation. The total of the refugees is estimated at half-a-million.
(BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE CABLE.).
LOYALTY OF SULTAN OF
SELANGOR.
The Sultan of Solangor has addressed a lester to the High Commissioner as follows: Although the Sultan of Turkey is of the same religion as myself my Government has absolutely no concern with the Turkish Government and my Chiefs and People are all loyal to the I pray that the British Government.
LATE TELEGRAMS.
(FROM SOUTHERN PAPERS.] FRENCH SUBMARINE LOST.
LONDON, December 30th. The French submarino Curie (of the escadrille of Bizerte) which had been detached from the naval squadron to take independent action against the Austrian cruisers anchored in the harbour of Pala (the Austrian naval base in the Adriatic), has not returned within normal time, and the reports given by the foreign, Press of the loss of this submarine may be con- sidered as correct.
BRITISH AIRMEN PRAISED.
BEST IN EUROPE.
LONDON, December 30th. A message from New York say that officers from the American oraleer Tennessee declare that the British aviators are the best in Europe. The French are individually brilliant, but as a military unit the British are the most efficient.
WAR IN WINTER.
ARDUOUS OPERATIONS ON THE FRANCO-BELGIAN FRONT.
LONDON, December 31st. Eye-witness at headquarters gives the daily record of the fighting from Decem- ber 16th to 24th. Our offensive, he says, continued with incrassed violence and energy, and the enemy's counter-attacks showed that his assumption of the defet sive was compulsory. A notable result of the fighting was that we captured numerous and important points d'appu Bad weather rendered the operations of the hardest. Cold and liquid mud, in which the men have to stand, gets into the breaches of the guns, preventing firing, so they fight with the butt-ends and fists. Soldiers are described as blocks of mud, but their imperturbable good humour enables them to endure the hardships. They greatly appreciate the haths and a change of linen on leaving the trenches, Before Nieuport there are foods on one side and the ses on the other, the dunes being in the intervening ground. South of Ypres there is most difficult fighting in the water, yet there is nothing but gains and no wavering.
ARTILLERY FIGHTING,
From the Oise to the Argonne our artillery has been most prominent in de stroying guns. In the region of Rheime there has been principally artillery fight ing. The enemy fired twice as many pro- jectiles as in the previous week, but were. unsuccessful in wresting the heavy advantage which our artillery has acquir ed
The effect of our attacks between. Rheims and the Argonne is shown by the fact that all the points d'appui wa intended to carry are to-day in our possession. The conditions of operations in the Argonne
We repulsed attacks at Bois-de-Consen- British may be victorious in the present forest are even more arduous owing to the
and at Bois-de-Bouchet.
Our war.'
yoyo detachments south-east of Cirey-sur Wesouze routed Germans who were pillag- ing the village of Bt. Sauveur.
CHINESE NEWS.
11
["DAILY PRESS EXCLUSIVE SERVICE]
Owing to snowstorms, there is a calm WEATHER IN NORTH CHINA.
in the Vosges and Alsace.
LONDON, January 13th.
2.45 am
Thie Paris evening communiqué says: The enemy violently bombarded all
night the French positions on the Plateau of Perrieres, to the north-east of Soissons today, and made a desperate attempt to re-take one of the positions. The result is unknown at present.
RUSSIAN FRONT..
[HROUGH REUTER'S AGENCY.] GERMANS ATTACK IN SMALL DETACHMENTS. HEAVY LOSSES SUFFERED.
LONDON, January 13th.
2,45 am.
A Petrograd, communiqué says:- The Germans continued the tactics which are now customary with them, namely, attacks by smalt detachments in isolated districts. All were easily repulsed.
The Germans ineffectively maintain a desperate offensive at Sukha. On Monday they attacked four times. Russina scouts at dawn on the same day approached German trenches, and successfully threw hand grenades amongst the enemy, inflict ing heavy losses. The enemy likewise suffered severely as the result of a night attack on the village of Samice, leaving 500 dead on the field.
RUSSIAN VICTORY OVER.
THE TURKS.
LONDON, January 13th.
PERING, January 13th. To-day is the coldest that has been experienced for sixteen years.
Many destituto persons have died from exposure.
The thermometer is 7 degrees below zero. At Kiachta 101 degrees (sic) of frost are reported.
SUPPRESSION OF OPIUM.
PEXING, January 13th.
The Government propos to issue in order for the complete suppression of opium by the end of this year.
THE KIACHTA CONFERENCE,
PEKING, January 13th. Two more articles of the proposed Mongolian Convention were agreed to at the Kiachta Conference today.
THE POSITION REVERSED,
At a valedictory review of the Welling ton section of the New Zealand Expedi tionary Force the Governor, Lord Liver pool, made a happy remark on the changed significance of the troopship in New Zea- land waters. He said :--
.:
Tiine was, at very long ago, when tho sight of a troopship in a New Zealand harbour denoted the arrival of troops from the Old Country To-day the posi tion is reversed. England has uced of all her sons to-day, and this young Dominion is sending home to the Motherland of her
best.
SOCIAL AT UNION CHURCH
HALL.
difficulties of the wooded and muddy ground, bat we make continued progress, all praise being the worthier. There has been much mining and counter-mining and on four occasions we exploded Ger- Our moral superiority is man mines. indisputable. Despite unfavourable con- ditions, aeroplanes and dirigibles are doing excellent work in bomb and arrow dropping, also by cooperating with the British feet off the Belgian coast and regulating the range of guns and watching
submarines,
"BE BRITISH!”
LAST MOMENTS ON H.MS. "FORMIDABLE."
CAPTAIN AND MEN GO"DOWN SMOXING.
LONDON, January 5th. Stories of survivors of H.M.8. Formid able show that shortly before the vessel was struck sixteen bells and a rattling of tin éana heralded the New Year. Most of the men were asleep when the explosion occurred. They soon realised that there was something serious as the captain ordered the boats out. This was only possible on the starboard side owing to the list When the survivors left they saw men on the quarter-deck mostly smoking while the captain was on the bridge with a cigarette in his mouth.
The last words they heard the captain say were Stoady nen, it's all right. No panic, keep cool, be British! There's tons of life left in the old ship yet. The captain's terrier was standing by his side as the ship disappeared. One marine was blown twenty feet into the air and fell into. the water and was rescued.
TURKS AND GERMANY. THE SCALES FALLING FROM TURKISH EYES.
GENERAL NEWS.
[FROM THE MANILA CABLENE W8,"]
NO ANTI-ALIEN LEGISLATION IN CALIFORNIA.
WASHINGTON, January 5th. Official advices received by the State Department here from Governor Hiram Johnson of California, convey the intelli. gence that no anti-Alien Legislation is tu be taken up or considered at the coming session of the California Legislature.
AMERICAN FLEET AND THE
PANAMA CANAL"
HEAVY FIGHTING IN
MEXICO.
AN ARMY OF 15,000 MEN PRACTI- CALLY ANNIHILATED."
CORRESPONDENCE.
S
to
CONSCRIPTION FOR HONGKONG.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE HONDKONG DAILY PRESS."] SIR,It would be interesting discover exactly what ails your contri- butor who clamoura for compulsory. Volunteers. One would almost suspect him of being an Irishman; certainly his antipathy to golf excludes the possibility of his being a Scotsman.
Personally, I cannot see much amiss with the young man's explanation that he did not enter the Volunteers because, Tsingtai having fallen, Hongkong did WASHINGTON, Jnanary 5th.
not appear any longer to be in danger. The trip of the combined United States Fleets through the International canal If he honestly entertained this view, I may to possibly postponed on account of cannot see anything illogical or discredit- the refusal of General Goethals toable in his attitude. Indeed, in the cir guarantee the passage of the dreadnoughts cumstances, if he had rushed off to dou around the Gold Hill slides.
khaki in order to avoid criticism ha That would have been a moral coward. is not the class of man who is wanted, I imagine. Your contributor does not scem, to judge by his own account' of the incident to have sought to show him that he was in error, otherwise LONDON, January 5th.
WASHINGTON, January 6th. According to advices received in Paris
Despite the apparent roseate character the local Volunteers might-and probably from Constantinople, recent events have of the messages received from Government would have gained another recrniv. severely thinned the ranks of partisans agents in Mexico during the last few Therefore it was your contributor who of Germany and the anti-German move days, advices received from Vera Cruz ment is increasing. Many German to-day state that an army of 15,000 men failed in his duty...
leaving Constantinople. under General Pancho Villa was practic We all admire the brave spirits who families are General von der Goltz's mission is regardally annihilated by an army of 30,000 have gone to the front to fight the battle under the command of Carranza.The of freedom for us, but I fail to see ed as doomed to failure.
message states that the battle was fought near Puebla, which has been captured by how that touches the matter at issue. We the Carranza foreca
cannot alleviate their sufferings or, apparently, strengthen their hands by rushing off to enrol in the local Volunteers or Reserves, unless by doing so wo can liberate regulars now engaged on the defence of this Colony,
THE FINANCES OF TURKEY.
LONDON, January 6th.
A telegram from Constantinople states that the Government has submitted a bill to the Chamber authorising the conclusion of a six per centum loan of five million pounds. The Chamber carried a bill pro longing the moratorium till April 13th, cent. of their debts to day and a further but debtors are obliged to pay five per five per cent, on February 14th.. The Government also submitted a bill exempt. ing soldiers from payment of debts till after the war.
EXPORTS PROHIBITED.
LONDON, January 6th.
The streets of the city for twelve miles are clogged with dead and the plazas are filled with dead and dying Villaistes and their opponents.
..
In official circles open comment of the [Pueblo, where the big battle was fought, between Vera Cruz and Mexico City.]
Everyone should be made to realise new turn of affairs in Mexico is withheld.
that the Empire is in the midst of DEFENCES OF THE PANAMA ghastly struggle and that he must do' something," says your correspondent very Cogently. But is hot. the.
man, who diligently applics himself to his daily. task doing something Is but the motto of the British nation now
CANAL.
the
WASHINGTON, January 6th.
of Colonel Goethals, builder- Panama Canal and now Governor of the Canal Zone, testified before the Commit. The Gazette contains a notice which pro-tee on Defence fo-day. Colonel Goethals declaring that in order to adequately hibits the export of clever and grass scods, startled the members of the committee by and motors of all kinds to European ports repel hostile ships of war, the present except those of the Allies, Spain and fortifications must be duplicated. Portugal, and fish oils to anywhere.
RAISED FROM THE RANKS.
LONDON, January 8th The Gazette announces that commissions" have been awarded to thirty non-commis- aioned officers for services in the field.
(FROM MANILA PAPERS.] AFFAIRS IN ALBANIA.
WASHINGTON, January 5th. The Albanian rebels have demanded that the Provisional President surrender the French and Sorvian Ministers to them, threatening to attack Duratio in the event of his refusal. Italian warships, appeal- ed to for aid, responded by shelling the positions occupied by the rebels. French and Italian ministers, together with their Legation stuffs, have already. embarked on the Italian ships of war.
THE FRENCH LOSSES.
The
CHRISTMAS. IN THE TRENCHES Eye-witness further says:-Christmas has come and gone without modification of the situation. The weather was much colder. There was a hard frost on Christ- We captured a German trench and dis mas eve and Christmas day was misty, covered a group of buildings which were the German headquarters. We con- centrated batteries on them, firing lyddite, and then searched the ground with shrapnel. It is believed that the bom bardment was effective. WASHINGTON, January 8th.
Eye-witness gives instances of the Ger mans having many killed in recent minor engagements Boxing Day was quiet, and
WASHINGTON, Jankary 8th. A dispatch from Berlin ways that on December 2nd, the French admitted hat their losse had amounted to 1,000,000 men killed, wounded and missing.
ITALY PREPARING FOR WAR.
Italy is making preparations for war and all Italian subjects in Switzerland who are liable for military service havo
CARGOES LEAVING U.S. PORTS.
THE CONTRABAND QUESTION.)
WASHINGTON, January 6th. The Government, in order to meet the eqntraband situation, may force the certi fication of all cargos leaving American porta in American ships. It is under stood that Great Britain is entirely in favour of this plan, but refuses to waive the right to search a ship after clearing from an American port in the event that the cargo is believed to be of a suspicions nature."
FIRE IN NEW YORK SUBWAYS.
300 NEARLY ASPHYXIATED.
NEW YORK, January 7th. Two trains loaded with employees, of down-town business houses were trapped by fire in a Broadway subway yester- day Over 200 persons were nearly asphyxiated, while one person is dead, Traffic everywhere is paralyzed.
THE DEFENCES OF THE UNITED STATES.
WASHINGTON, January 7th. Mr. Lindley M. Garrison, Secretary of War, Mr. Josephus M. Daniels, the
the weather frosty, with sleet and rain been ordered to report to their consulates. Becrtary of the Navy, lagether with
He describes the presentations of gifts from the King, the Queen and Princess Mary and says they gave the most intense pleasure. The eagerness of the wounded was almost pathetic. Many wrote per- sonal letters of thanks to Their Majesties, GERMANS SLAUGHTERED AT LIHONS.
CARDINAL'S ARREST
DENIED.
WASHINGTON, January 8th. bishop of Mechlin, by German authorities The arrest of Cardinal Mercier, Arch in Belgium, is denied in an official mes. sage from Berlin.
[FROM GERMAN SOURC28-] GREAT BRITAIN AND NEUTRAL FISHING VESSELS.
BERLIN, January 8th- The Urlerseedienst says that the Nor wegian Minister of Foreign Affairs has been advised by the British Minister in Christiania that neutral fishing steamers are not to be permitted to call at either British or Irish ports. · ·
WALK INTO FRENCH TRAP.
LONDON, December 31st. A Paris message says that the principal recent French gains have been obtained between Rheims and Argonne, though progress in the valley of the Oise and in Eanterro is probably strategically the more important. Fighting round Lihong has been particularly severe. German attacks here began soon after a bloody affair at Quesnoy on Saaitarre, where the Germans left 6,000 dead and wounded on the field. The Germans began to attack Lihone, which was already desperately battered, with a heavy bombardment, but
BERLIN. January 7th." the French reply was deliberately feeble. and gradually ceased. The Germans, On December 31at there was 2.092,000,000 thinking the place wen, poured along the marks in gold in the Reichstag bank, com rond from Chaulnes and met a fierce firepared with 1,160,000,000 marcs at the cor- fron, concealed French infantry who then responding time in 1913. During 1911. attacked with the bayonet. Concealed forty-two and two-tenths per cent. of the The notes of the bank were covered with metal, mitrailleuses completed the font. Germans, however, still persisted in
GERMANY GIVES THANKS attacking the town.
THE BOMBARDMENT OF DAR-ES-SALAAM.
REICHSTAG BANK'S GOLD
DEPOSIT
TO CHINA..
A pleasant social evening in connection with the Union Church Guild took place in the Church-Hall last evening, when A Petrograd communiqué relating to
the following contributed to the musical.
BERLIN, January 4th. the Army in the Caucasus states that programme, which had been arranged by
The German nation as a whole is grate stubborn fighting continues with the Mrs. Gibson: Miss Mackenzie (piano-
ful to the Chinese Republic for the help LONDON, January 8th. Turkish rearguards af Olti, and that the forte salos), Mrs. Farrell, Mrs. Macken-
Advices from Nairobi dated December given to the destitute German women and 15th state that His Majesty's ships Fa-children from Tsingtau. fierce struggle at Kotaurgan is turning zie, Mr. Gow, Mr. Russell, Mr. Dow, and
the Malo Quarlette (Messrs, Gray, Allan, and Goliath (formerly of the China to the advantage of the Russians,
doing considerable damago, All the Since the opening of the war up to the. Smith and Brown) Mrs Fergusson Station) bombarded Dar es Salaamo, kindly acted as accompanist. In the enemy's vessels in the harbear were end of November the Anglo-Indian Army other, and
unavoidable absence of the Rev. J. Kirk entirely disabled. Fourteen Europeans under Field-Marshal Sir John French is. and twenty natives were captured. The reported to have suffered 84,000 casualties,
wounded.
with which it originally took the field.
Bursians captured one Turkish
an artillery depot.
hilated an
leaders of Congress have held a long con ference and have decided that the revenues of 1915 will hardly justify any additional enlargements to the defences of the United States. Additional defences for 1916, however, will be considered. PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE
QUESTION.
Business as usual”? Is not this a war of exhaustion of money no leas than men If not, why the blockade of German ports, the liquidation of German businessts, and the searching of neutral ships Has not the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that the last hundred millions sterling will win this war, and has not Lord Kitelenor hasured thos engaged on the manufacture of munitions of war that they are serving their country when doing their work? We must all de some thing, yes, but surely we must- Businesses not all do the same thing. cannot be carried on sa usual if all, except the aged and decrepit, are recovering by day from the effects of duty at night.
And if a man is not a member of the local Volunteer force wherein lies the sin of playing golf? Is it any worse than (say) playing bridge? At least the man who takes a tart round the links is trying to keep himself it, and he can console himself for the scarifying fulmina- tions of your contributor with the reflec tion that even Drake played bowls whon the Armada was not far from our coast and fought none the worse afterwards for having done so,--Ycura, cte.,
A SHIRKER.
THE MAGISTRACY. DECEPTION ON A PAWNBROKER.
Before Mr. F. A Hazeland yesterday, a Chinese was charged by Inspector Gordon with obtaining $17 by false. pretences. It is alleged that the defen- dant walked into a pawnbroker's shop, presented a bangle, and stated that his sister-in-law had paid $38 for the pair. The pawnbroker handled over the sum of 317 for the hangle, and on examining it more closely found that it was made of lead covered with only a thin coating of gold. The man was arrested, and the police discovered that the bangle was made
WASHINGTON, January 8th. Senator John W. Weeks of Massachu Betts, the Bay State's junior member in the Upper House of Congress, has bitterly denounced the preamble to the Jones Bill. Senator Weeks is a member of the Senate in a shop in Queen's Road East in which Committee on the Philippines and during he was employed as a silversmith The, one of the bearings given on the Philip ease was remanded. pino measure he denounced the preamble of the Jones Bill as an abomination.
Manuel Quezon, one of the resident Commissioners of the Philippines in Washington, was called as a witness, Mr. Quezon, caused somewhat of a sensation by requesting that the Filipinos be ultimately given the right to decide whe ther or not they desired to be given their independence by the United States. ⠀⠀
Commissioner Quezon's statement is being interpreted by the members of the committee to mean that the Filipinos would prefer to remain under the pro- tectorate of the United States...
Continuing, Commissioner Quezon, said that while the Filipinos would be unable to prevent Japan, Germany, or Great. Britain from seizing the islands, they could in very short time establish a military system such as is in vogue in Switzerland, which would make an inva- sion by any Power difficult.
PURCHASE OF GERMAN- VESSELS.
WASHINGTON, January 8th. Great Britain has agreed to the par- chase by Amerians of German ships which
in the United States,
THE HONGKONG TRAMWAY CO.,
LIMITED.
The following are the Company's figures for the week ending January 9th:
Receipts.
. § 9,873 Decrease compared with corres-
ponding work last year. $899 Aggregate to date:-
No, of weeks....... Total
Decrease to date
$20, 13t "8.1,804
NEW P. & O. CHAIRMAN,
The Peninsular & Oriental Company announces that Sir Thes. Sutherland has resigned, and that Lord Inchcape will raplace him.
RUBBER SITUATION.
LONDON, December 29th. Many companies are withholding divi- dends against contingencies. The situation is becoming critical, due to export prohibition.
Bukit Rajah pays an interim dividend
Struita Tames. ·
Mr. Mitchell presided over British losses were one killed and twelve losses equal approximately to the strength are now lying idle in a number of ports of 6 per cent. and Trolak 10 per cent-