ALLIES CLOSING IN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1808, 22 July 1913, Page 5

ALLIES CLOSING IN.

BULGAR ARMY SURROUNDED NO NEWS FROM SOFIA. REPORTED FLIGHT OF KING AND QUEEN. , By Telegraph—Press Association— Ooprriffht London, July 20. Tho Allies are gradually closing in upon tho Bulgarians. A Rumanian flying column, within forty miles of Sofia, encountered a Bulgarian brigade between Lom-Palanka and Sofia. / A brief fight occurred, and tho Bulgarians lost twelve guns, and surrendered. The Greeks are pushing through the central mountains toward the mountain capital. They are firing villages in, retaliation for tho Bulgarian atrocities. The Servians at Uskub'closed the Bulgarian churches, which, under Turkish rule, enjoyed freedom. What is happening in SoSa is not known. There .are many rumours that King Ferdinand and his Queen have fled to Austria. The King of Greece has telegraphed that mutilated bodies of four notables at Seres were found at Petrich. Most of the foreign war correspondents confirm the statement. They say they saw one hundred mutilated corpses of influential persons at Dermirhissar.

PEACE PROSPECTS BRIGHTER. SUGGESTED MEETING OF RIVALS. (Rec. July 22, 0.5 a.m.) London, July 21. The prospects of a peace settlement in the Balkans aTe now more hopeful. Rumania has suggested a conference of the five belligerents at Sindia, a proposal to which Austria, Russia, and the other Powers are agreeable. Bulgaria utilised Italy as an intermediary, and offered Rumania a cession of the Turtukai-Baltchik line, on condition that the Rumanian troops were withdrawn, and neutrality preserved towards' the Serbo-Grccian conflict with Bulgaria. Rumania refused to consider any peace proposal apart from a proposal covering the general peaco of the Balkans.

Athens, July 21. A Turco-Greoian agreement relating to prisoners, and also to religious safeguards, tow been signed, ready for ratification. The Allies, in reply to Bussia, have agreed to negotiate with Bulgaria direct, and to conclude an armistice, provided Bulgaria accepts the preliminary conditions. Three British cruisers have arrived at Piraeus. Pour destroyers are expected. KAISER'S MOVEMENTS: AN INFERENCE. (Sydney "Sun" Special—July 21, 7.20 p.m.) Berlin, July 21. The view taken of the fact that the Kaiser is spending his holiday in Norway is that it is a sure sign that ho expects complications in the Balkans.

THE SERES HORRORS. ; WAR CORRESPONDENT'S TESTIMONY. IMPOSSIBLE TO EXAGGERATE THEM. (Rec. July 21, 10.35 p.m.) London, July 21. The "Daily Telegraph's" war correspondent states that it.is almost impossible to exaggerate the extent of the barbarity which characterises tho treatment of the inhabitants of Seres by the Bulgarians. The town, with its fifty thousand inhabitants, and the wholo countryside for miles around, had been a reelcing sham bios for the past three months. Nearly fifty thousand people were done to death. They were mostly Turks.' On July 1 the Bulgarians openly boasted of their plans to attack the Greeks next day, and reach Salonika in a few hours. On July 4 the Bulgarian troops streamed through Seres from the battle of Lachana, a hopelessly-demornlisetl rabble. The Greeks failed to appear at Seres, and the Bulgarians returned to the town on July 10. , Soon after their arrival the whole town was in flames, and the streets were covered; with mangled corpses. When the Bulgacs forced the Austrian Consul to leave his house, two hundred refugees, mostly women and children, were marched off towards the mountains, (lieir captors threatening to massacre them. A professor, who was amongst the captives, challenged the Bulgarians with subsequent Austrian vengeance, and eventually the Bulgars were prevailed upon to accept a ransom.