Roumania Questioned by Germany

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 53, 8 February 1916, Page 5

Roumania Questioned by Germany

FRENCH SKIRMISH WITH BULGARS

Reported Mining of German Warship

AMERICA AT REST!

Total Australian Casualties X

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Playfair, Ribblesdale, Rosmead, and Staxnfordham. Half a dozen baronets are also left without heirs, and several titles are in doubt owing to their heir s being reported “missing.”

The position in the Balkans has not altered materially sincq yesterday. The News of Roumania appears, however, to have consolidated somewhat in favour of the Entente, and Germany is reported to have sent an ultimatum, but this is not confirmee?. There is friction between the Bulgars and the Germans at the latter’s attempts to dominate every action. On the Diran front, the first encounter since the Allies’ retirement occurred between the Bulgarians and French patrols, but few casualties have been reported. There has been some sharp fighting in Albania in the vicinity of Alessio, which is on the Adriatic coast midway between Skutari and Durazzo, and the Italians and Serbians had to retire. El Bassan, which the Bulgarians are stated to have occupied, is south-east of Durazzo, some miles inland. Something is doing on the Russo-Roumanian frontier to our advantage. as we read that Russia has closed thg lines of communication owing to a concentration of troops.

As anticipated, the trouble between America and Germany shows every sign of blowing away. Germany has agreed that submarine reprisals, will not be made upon neutral shipping, this “.phrase” taking the place of the word “illegal” in previous Notes, and so America’s heels are' cooling fast.

Before the members of the Second Maori Contingent left the troopship Waitemata, which took them to Egypt, they presented Captain Nicholson and the other officers o£. the vessel with the following address:—“A message of love and leave-taking from the Second Maori Contingent, known as ‘Te Hoko Whitu-a-Tu,’ i.e., ‘The Fighting Contingent of Tu, the God of War.’ We cannot leave you without expressing our appreciation and gratitude to you for your patience, your zeal, your wisdom, and your continual vigilance, by which you have brought us safely through the storms and wastes and the many dangers of the Great Ocean of Kiwa, our ancestor. We extend to you our affection for the kindness, the care, and the great consideration you have shown for our welfare throughout the trip, for they have been equal to those of a parent for his children. By your happiness we have been made happy. By your participation in our pleasures those pleasures have been made great. On account of all these facts we shall never forget you, for we have learned to regard you as a father to us your children. And now our hearts are heavy and sad, for we have come to the time when we must part. Farewell. Return to the land whence we came. May the blessing of the Highest rest upon you, upon your officers, and upon your ship as you go on during the part that has been allotted to you in this war in which we air in common are fighting that truth may prevail, that error may fall, and that peace may be restored to the world. Farewell. Farewell. Farewell.”

The extent to which the Peerage has surrendered the lives of its sons to the service of the Empire is strikingly illustrated in the pages of the new “Debrett.” A roll of honour of more than 800 names of those who have been killed or have died of wounds fills twelve and an analysis of the list shows that it contains :

1 Member of the Royal Family

6 Peers. 16 Baronets 6 Knights, 7 M.P.’s.

164 Companions. 95 Sons of Peers. 8S Sons of Baronets. 84 Sons of Knights. The way in which fate has hit some families is shown by the list. Tims, Lord Penrhyn has lost his eldest son and two half-brothers. Lord Desborough has lost two sons, as have also Sir George Dashwood, Sir Henry E. St. L. Clarke, and Sir Lulham Pound, while Sir Archibald LucasTooth has lost two brothers and two successive heirs to the earldom of Loudoun have been killed. Changes in the succession to more than 100 titles have been caused by the deaths in the war. In quite a number of instances the Peerage is threatened with extinction owing to the death of all the possible heirs. Among titles so affected are the marqnisate of Lincolnshire, the baronies of Knaresborough,