GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 69, 26 February 1916, Page 6

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

- JAPAN SHOWING HER TEETH. , [United Press Association.] London, February 24. It is reported at Washington that Japan sent Aiistro-Germany, through America, on January 21, a strong protest, stating that Japan could not pledge herself to continue the generous treatment of German prisoners it unlawful and inhuman destruction was continued. Washington officials decline. information. TURKS KEPT IN IGNORANCE. The Times’ correspondent at Bucharest states that visitors from Coni stantinople say that the population 1 are completely ignorant of the fall of Er/.crum. Turkish discontent and distress are prevalent, and women are holding peace demonstrations. / MORE RUSSIAN SUCCESSES, There has been an important new ; Russian success on the .Dneister, the Russians defeating the Austrian fort ces between the Dneister and the , Pruth. An effort to reconquer the lost positions failing, the Austrians asked for reinforcements, and twentyj two-Hungarian Lantlsfinra battalions ! and a number of cavalry squadrons have been sent. RUSSIA’S COMMAND OF THE BLACK SEA. H Corriere della Sera publishes a Petrograd despatch saving that the Russians surrounded an army corps south of Mush. The Turks are hastening the evacuation of Trebizond, because there one hundred thousand soldiers are nearly foodless. Russia’s control of the Black Sea appears absolute. \ * JAPAN’S HELP. The Japanese Ambassador, Mataia, interviewed on his arrival at Marseilles, said that Japan was following most interestedly the development <d the war and does not doubt the issue. Japan’s role since the capture of Tsing-tau and the disappearance of the Gormans from the Pacific has been confined to supplying th e Russians with, munitions and food, and Japanese factories had shared m the triumph of Erzeroum. NAVY LEAGUE WANTS AIRCRAFT The Navy League has passed a resolution to appeal to the Government to concentrate a national effort on aircraft construction, with a view to a vigorous offensive policy. MEED FOR ECONOMIES. The National Savings Committee* urgently appeals to large householders to cut down the number ol servants, shut up a portion of their houses, hive less elaborate meals, close hothouses, and otherwise simplify household arrangements, thus releasing labor and saving money lor the war. AIR RAID SUFFERERS. In the House of Commons, Mr F. A. Newdegate asked that sufferers y.v Zeppelin raids should be compensated out of German investments in Britain. Mr Asquith replied that already provision been made by State insurance for air raids. ENEMY TRADE. Imperialists in the House of Commons are pressing Mr Bonar Law to immediately consult the dominions to secure the organisation of the whole economic strength of'the Empire and Allies for anti-German trade, and to report thereon. SINAI SANDSTORMS. A high authority states that seasonal sandstorms are to be expected in the Sinai Peninsula next week. Experts agree that an offensive against Egypt is unlikely and almost impossible, some stating that the danger of attack definitely ends early in March. AUSTRIAN BRUTALITY ON RUSSIAN PRISONERS. A Russian commission ol inquiry into the Austrian treatment of Russian prisoners was based exclusively on the testimony ot eye-witness and \ Klims who had escaped their captors. I’here was unbelievable barbarity, which shows that the Austrian treatment is ! moro savage than that of the Germans. Tiie Russians suffered starvation, suffocation, robbery, heating and degradation of every kind. Many were tortured and some were murdered. They had an eight: days’ journey to the concentration earn]), and. were a- . u ,nst foodless, ami civilians were ah ■ lowed to strike them and spit on then i nm l tear the bandages off then ; wounds. In camp, coffee was made o I 1,.,1-lev end acorns, and tea c! black | perry leaves. Bread was mixed am k

berry leaves. Bread .was mixed with chopped straw, and the drinking water was taken from a canal receiving drainage. Seven hundred who were infested with typhoid were driven to and deserted in sandy hills, and left uncovered to die. Ihe prisoners were forced to do trench-making, and those refusing wore beaten and starved. There were inhuman tortures lor imaginary bleaches of discipline. Photographs of the tortures, which are embodied iu the report, show the malevolent savagery to which the Austrians have sunk. A NEUTRAL’S VIEWS. The Times’ correspondent at Iho Hague says that a distinguished neutral lady from Berlin complains that at the frontier she was stripped, the soles of her feet washed in search ol invisible writing, the heels of her shoes removed. her hair taken down, and the lining of her hat examined. These are the means by which the German news has been reaching Kngland, and there is a tightening of the German search everywhere. This lady says there is much talk of Zeppelins, with unusual activity in the form of manoeuvres over Berlin. The poorer classes have unlimited faith in air warfare, and believe that Germany will he able to land large bodies of troops in England. Russian and French prisoners are removing garbage in Beilin in order to release every available man. Most of her women friends are heartily sick of the war. The workers are annoyed and depressed at the obstinacy of the Allies in refraining from seeking definite terms of peace, and there are fewer fire-eaters of the kind that formeily talked of a chain of submarines to throttle John Bull and a fleet of Zeppelins to set fire to the Bank ot England and Buckingham Palace. To-day thousands question whether the submarines and Zeppelins will not cause England to tighten the blockade and deprive the soldiers of the necessities which are now coming through the leakage. There is extraordinary confidence among a certain class in Berlin that peace will give Germany Antwerp, a port on the Adriatic, an exit to the Persian Gulf, the Belgian Congo, the return to Germany of her colonies, and