NAVAL BATTLE OFF VALPARAISO

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2300, 6 November 1914, Page 5

NAVAL BATTLE OFF VALPARAISO

TWO BRITISH CRUISERS SAID TO BE SUNK TURK MEETS RUSSIAN SKIRMISH ON THE FRONTIER. MARTIAL LAW IN EGYPT . SERVIA BREAKS WITH TURKEY ' ' TURKISH MINISTERS' RESIGN Events are now beginning to move quickly in the Near East, where a new theatre of war lias been created by the Turkish attack on RussiaTurkish outposts have encountered Russian troops oil the frontier, and have, not come out of the meeting ivith much distinction. Preparations are in train for tho transport of large bodies of Turkish troops to .various points of attack, but the active sea patrol which is being . , maintained by the Allies' Fleet is effectively blocking these enterprises. ' Four members of the Turkish Cabinet have resigned, on what grounds is not stated. Servia has severed relations with the Turk, while Bui- • garia is still meditating upon the prds and cons of the situation as regards her neutrality. Martial law has been proclaimed in Egypt, but ■ the statement of the Egyptian Premier to the influential Italian nowsr pap'or "Giornale d' Italia" that the British and Egyptian authorities are working in perfect harmony, and that the Egyptians had spon- " taneously expressed their loyalty, gives ground for fha assumption that the proclamation is merely made for the purpose of regulating the military situation, and not to meet any special internal crisis'. From the other theatres of the war there is not much to report. The outcome of the great struggle round Yprea has been a great relief to France; in Bordeaux, the present seat of the Administration, it is admitted i that the crisis is almost over. General Joffre, the Commander-irt-Chief of the Allied operations in France and Belgium, is reported to have said that with a certain sacrifice he could speedily clear the Germans out of France,- but that the effort was not worth the cost—he would prefer to fight the enemy right over the frontier at a less sacrifice. In the meantime the enemy is moving east, and the Kaiser likewise! In tho Eastern theatre the great sweeping movement of ■ ' the Russians in Poland continues, while the German Army in East Prussia has been forced to take up the defensive. German official • opinion regards the retreat from Poland as "a strategical measure," •not a retreat! Further details of the naval sortie by a German ■squadron off Lowestoft show that the Germans had apparently profited by the use of information concerning the special Admiralty charts of the mined waters off the English coast. The wretched gunnery of the Germans made'it possible for the old cruiser ' Halcyon to make good her escape. Tbero are sensational, but unconfirmed, reports of a serious naval engagement off the South 'American coast, resulting, it is alleged; in the sinking of the British cruisers Monmouth and Good Hope, with loss of life, and the damaging of the cruiser Glasgow, by the German cruisers Schrnhorst, Gneieenau, and Nurnberg. A German report states that the Monmouth only i was sunk. Tho German, cruiser raiders Leipzic and Karlsruhe have also been busy, according to report. : ~