COMPULSORY SERVICE

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 30 December 1915, Page 5

COMPULSORY SERVICE

CffSINET ADOPTS THE PRINCIPLE OPPOSITION EXPECTED IN PARLIAMENT THE TENSION IN BRITAIN EASED BULGARIAN FERDINAND’S BOMBAST PREPARING TC MEET RUSSIANS IMPREGNABLE SALONIKA i ADAPTED fOR SCIENTIFIC DEFENCE

AT SALONIKA. 210,000 TROOPS LANDED. TWO LINES OF DEFENCE. AMSTERDAM, Dee] 25. special correspondent of "V osslsZeitung, after a visit to that 210,000 troops have landed, rhom 90,000 are English. Twentyn thousand sick and wounuec ! already been sent back, white ) guns have been landed, le Entente troops have completed first lines of defence around Sa;o- , and are preparing a second lino. y IMPREGNABLE SALONIKA.. ► TURKISH ENTANGLEMENTS USED.

(Reed. 8.25 a.m.) outer’s correspondent at British [quarters in Macedonia says there few sites better adapted to sciendefe*b. ,The position recalls alja, m| afe valley is broader and hills high®*: The lines occupy a mile semi-circle from Valdar to -frendina, whereof half is naturdefended by lakes Langaza, Beand many morasses girdle the

to the southward and guarding approaches to Salonika, also faring admirable emplacements for i and machine guns. We are uti- ? some barbed wire entanglements Furks constructed in the first Balwar, the region being full of hisi interest. Trench diggers con-

dly unearth coins, statuettes and sry.

•he invading bulgars. EKS WILL ALLOW FRONTAL ATTACKS. JUT NOT FLANKING ONES. ATHENS, Dec. 28. ie Greeks will not offer resistance he Bulgarians who are frontally •king the Anglo-French, hut will permit a Ffolgarian invasion from :ing points the frontier. BULGARIN BOMBAST. 'BRDINAND AN APT PUPIL. THE GERMAJN TRUMPETER. (Reed. 9.25 a.m.) AMSTERDAM, December 29. ng Ferdinand, in a bombastic ch at the opening of the So-bran-aid after exhausting all efforts to c© Serbia to peacefully restore tory treacherously taken from aria, the latter was compelled to de in order to shorten the sufferof their enslaved brethren in Mar nia. The Bulgarians fought with ;hlesg dash, and in co-operation the brave troops of her Allies, covered themselves with glory :ompletely defeating their perfidienemy, who was driven out of his country. Moreover, troops which great powers, France and Eng- , to the disgrace of civilisation their owvaixoun tries, that were ageist Bulgarian m in ■ order to maintain the Sertyranny, were chased out of Mania.

.doslavoff, replying to the agrain party’s interpollatipn, said, he been officially informed that ce would not permit Allied troops ind at Kavalla.

BXJLGAR TORPEDOER SUNK. AT VARNA BOMBARDMENT. BUCHAREST, Dec. 25. ' During Friday’s bombardment if Varna, a Bulgarian torpedo-boat was sunk. S SERVIANS REORGANISED, GOING TO SALONIKA. Reed. 9.25 a.m.) ATHENS, December 29. 75,000 Serbian troops have been reorganised and are concentrated at Scutari. It is proposed to transfer them to the Salonika front. THE MEUNSTER EXPLOSION. SERGEANT NOTICES SMOKE. HAVOC BY BURSTING SHELLS, FOUR HUNDRED VICTIMS. AMSTERDAM, Dec. 25. Details of the Meunster explosion show that a sergeant noticed smoke issuing through the seams in the floor. He ordered the 750 workers to quit the factory. A violent explosion almost immediately followed. Ther> were over 400 victims. Many women and children in the neighbourhood, thinking it an air raid rushed into the street. This curiosity led to many .natalities, as shells in the factory continued to explode. One damaged a number of houses, kiMing several. THE INGENIOUS HUN. FINDING AN ECXUSE. FOE SHELLING A HOSPITAL. AMSTERDAM, Dee. 28. A German communique states: The fire of a monitor killed three inhabitants at Westende. Our artillery attacked numerous trains traversing Soissons station. The French recently hoisted Red Cross fags on a hospital close to the station, apparently in order to protect the latter. It is not impossible, therefore, that the hospital was accidentally hit, owing to its proximity bthe station. i MUNITIONS FOR TURKEY. BIG HOWITZERS FOR EGYPT. GERMANS BUSY WITH TRANSPORTS. ROME, December 28. The Messagero’s Bucharest correspondent says that munition train* are conveying ammunition 'Mo Constatinople, and that two 42-centimetre howitzers intended for the operations against Egypt have been carried over the Belgrade - Sofia - Constantinople line. IN MESOPOTAMIA. RUSSIANS ONWARD MARCH. (Reed. 9.20 a.m.) LONDON, December 29th’. The Russians have occupied Kashan and are marching towards Ispahan. THE CHINESE TROUBLE. (Reed. 9.25 a.m.) PEKIN, December 29. Kwangtung ana Kwangst remain loyal, meanwhile the Government desj patched a pacification commissioner to Yuannan.

VON MA.CKENSEN.

NUMBER

IN THE BLACK SEA.

ENEMY PLOT IN ROUMANIA. TO KILL FRIENDS OF ALLIES. CONSPIRATOR CONFESSES. BUCHAREST. Dec. 2S, A conspirator’s confession that a bomb plot bad been hatched av Budapesth to kill) several public men, including M. Take Jonescue, leader or the Opposition, and head of the campaign for intervention on behalf of the Allies, and M. Bratiano. Four arrests have been made. Fifty pounds of explosive from the Timesvar arsenal and 80,000 francs in gold were found at the conspirator’s hotel.

DIRECTING IN BUKOWINA

BUCHAREST, Dec. 28

General von Mackensen is now directing the Austro-German operations in Bukowina.

THE RECRUITING CRISIS,

SINGLE MEN NOT CANVASSED

DERBY’S PLEDGE MUST BE FULFILLED.

AS A FIRST ESSENTIAL,

LONDON. Dec. 28

The Manchester Guardian, referring to the crisis, says it is admitted that half a million eligible single men have stood out from the Earl Derby’s attestations. It is also believed that hundreds of thousands of single men have not been canvassed. The paper says: “It may not be Eari Derby’s fault, but he has not male anything like a complete canvass. Mr. Asquith’s pledge must be fulfilled, but the Derby pledge of a complete canvass must be fulfilled first.’ ’

THE KAISER’S THROAT.

EOME, Dee. 28,

Reliable information is to the effect that the Kaiser is abed awaiting an operation to the throat.

ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT,

COLOSSAL GERMAN WORKS

WHOLE FRONT FORTIFIED

MACHINE-GUNS WITHOUT

PARIS, December 28. n

A SUCCESS CLAIMED,

ANZAC MAGAZINE

TRAL VESSEL,

The French correspondent at the Russian front, M. Nandeau, writing from Petrograd, states that the Germans have fortified on a colossal scale the entire front from Vilna to Dvinsk. The whole region bristles with trenches. They are also formidably fortifying the whole of the Bug line with concrete platforms and heavy guns. Villages interfering with the line are pitilessly razed.

The enemy possess an extraordln ary number of machine-guns and an tomatic rifles.

FRENCH SUCCESSES.

PETROGRAD, December 28

Official reports of the encounter “between the destroyer Gromky, on the Bulgarian coast, and a number of enemy submarines, show that the Gromky skilfully evaded two torpedoes, and repulsed the submarines by artillery fire. It is believed that one submerge wag sunk. I COMMERCIAL SRIELiAT(IONS WITH BELLIGERENTS. TO BE DISCUSSED IN PARIS. BY INTERPARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE. (Reed. 8.'25 a.m.) LONDON, December 29. The Dominion High Commissioners will attend the Allies Interparliamenttary Commercial Conference. The meeting will be held in Paris on the 6th March, where to delegates of all Allie s parliaments have been summoned to discuss commercial relations with belligerents. SHELLS FOR GERMANY. LONDON, December 28. Sir William Ramsay, in the course of a letter to the “Times,” says that as a result of the quantities of linseed and other oils exported to Holland during the past 11 months in excess of the normal exports, it is safe to say that Britain has presented her enemies with six thousand tons of nitroglycerine, yielding 18,000 tons of gun ammunition.

GERMANY’S DESIRE

TO LIVE IN PEACE,

Sir William Ramsay, the well-known scientist, was Nobel prizeman in 1904. He is a Commander of the Crown of Italy, a Knight of the Prussian Order Pour le Merite, an officer of the Legion of Honour, and a member of all. the leading scientific institutions: of Europe. He has written many scientlr -> vjrrVc■

, A TURKISH COMMUNIQUE

LONDON, December 29,

A Turkish communique states: East of Kut-el-Amara we drove back a detachment with two machine guns and a considerable number of horsemen, who protected by two monitors, were coming to the assistance of Kut-el-Amara.

The enemy’s artillery severely bombarded our right wing at Seddul-Bahr, and there was an incessant bombardment by machine guns, bombs, and aerial torpedce s on our left wing. Our artillery replied, silencing the enemy and destroying a portion of their trenches. We seized everything useful. Some transports were wrecked on the coast of Biyuk-Kimiklee. i

LONDON, December 29

Captain Bean edited the Christmas Magazine at Anzac, which contains verse, prose and drawings. It will be published in London shortly.

HCW THE VILLE DE COiTAT WAS CAUGHT.

SUBMARINE SCREENED BY NEU-

AUSTRIANS JEER AT SURVIVORS

MALTA, December 29

The Yille de Coitat carried 135 passengers and 181 of a crew. When off r Tete at 10 in’ the morn in? she sighted a Dutch steamer and then a Greek. Immediately afterwards a terrific explosion shook her from stem to stern. The torpedo made an enormous hole in her stern, and there was a great inrush of water. Simultaneously with the explosion a submarine flying the Austrian flag appeared a few yards away. The general opinion is that one of the foreign vessels had covered the submarine. There was no panic. The crew lowered the boats, and the

passengers, with the greatest coolness, gathered on deck. Five lifeboats and two rafts were released. A boat containing women and children capsized, -•nd all were drowned. Another was smashed on the ship’s side. The steamer’s final plunge carried down the majority of the victims. The submarines waited until the vessel had sunk, and 1 then circled round the lifeboats .jeering at the survivors, and saying, “There’s a British steamer behind will pick you up.” Two hom*s 'later the Merol picked them up, although the submarine’s wake was still visbile. Apparently her torpedoes were exhausted. The Meroi’s provisions were insufficient for the 238 extra mouths, and many spent Xmas Day on the shortest rations.

IMPROVING THE POSITION

The High Commissioner reports London 1.20 a.m., 29th: In Artoio the French bombarded effectively Lius station. In the Vosges, at Hartmannsweillerkopf, we carried some trenches which were still held by the enemy, capturing one hundred prisoners. BULGARS UNEASY. FEAR GERMAN DOMINATION. BUCHAREST, December 29. Bulgar-German officers’ brawls are frequent. The Bulgarians are uneasy regarding Germany’s domination. It i s feared that the treasury will be despoiled. German troops have displaced the Bulgarian garrison at Sofia. Servian live stock is to be removed to Germany. Pigs will be sold in Berlin markets at voluptuous prices. ' GENERAL “TOPMENI.” JUST A PLAIN SOLDIER. AND SURE OF TRIUMPH. LONDON, December 29. The Paris “Journal” interviewed King Peter at Valona. He said: “I am no longer a king. The Crown Prince commands the army. I am General Tcpmeni, a plain soldier, ready to obey. My soldiers are withdrawing because of hunger and fatigue, but when revictualled and rested will fight again. My people must triumph, because our cause is just.”

PRESS COMMENTS

LONDON, December 29

Professor Zorn, sanctioned by Herr Holhveg, states that the Germans do not think-of world supremacy, and only want to live in peace in their own country. When it is understood that Germany is only making war to save her existence, peace will come.

PRINCIPLE OF COMPULSION. ADOPTED BY CABINET. CO/NSIDERAB'LE OPPOSITION EXPECTED. BY HOUSE OF COMMONS. (Reed. 8.55 a.m.) LONDON, December 29. Newspapers announce that Cabinet has adopted the principle of compulsion which has eased the public tens-

Opposition to compulsion has notably decreased during the last few' weeks, even among extreme radical critics. This is largely due to the silent pressure of the millions attested in Lord Derby’s groups and their friends. The unmarrieds who have joined, as well as the marrieds, feel that they are directly interested in the fulfilment of Mr. Asquith’s pledge, and have realised the growing seriousness of the military situation. Another factor in this was also seen in the rush at recruiting offices after the holidays due to men home on furlough from France showing their friends the necessity of the strongest national effort. When Cabinet’s decision was arrived at, the first impression that a number of resignations were certain, but pourparlers with dissentient ministers followed with the result that no immediate resignations will result. There is now general hope that a crisis will be averted, though it is thought some re-arrangement of officers may follow. If the appointment of a member of the Cabinet to the Vice-royalty of India is made, it is expected that the leaders of the labour party will’accept Mr. Asquith’s decision regarding the necessity for compulsion, but the party will meet early to discuss the matter. It is anticipated that only the noisy socialist section under Snowden and MacDonald wall eventually oppose the Government. Possibly Ireland may be left out altogether, though it is ,a question whether the exclusion of Ire-

land would mean the exclusion of Ulster, which is a bitter pill to the Northern provinces. The Daily News says that twentythree classes of unnmrrieds must be called up before the marrieds, who can claim the protection .of Mr. Asquith’s pledge. With only a million and a quarter men in the field out of three million under arms, there can be no question for months of any shortage of reserves, even with the net wastage in the interval. Therefore there is ample time for a determined effort to avoid compulsion, which will be strenuously opposed in the House of Commons.

COMPULSION IN BRITAIN,

MINISTERS AT VARIANCE.

FULL ATTENDANCE OF CABINET

INTENSE PUBLIC INTEREST,

DENSE CROWDS THRONG THE STREETS.

NO DECISION ARRIVED AT.

LONDON, Dec. 28

There was a full attendance of the Cabinet. The crowd was so great that the police cleared Downing Street. Mr. Lloyd George was heartily cheered.'

The Daily Telegraph states that the Cabinet did not come to a final decision, but Mr. Asquith’s pledge will be fully honoured on the lines of Lord Derby’s letter of the 19th November The whole matter will be debated in the House of Commons on Wednesday after Mr. Asquith’s has announced the Cabinet’s decision

LONDON, Dec. 28

The Daily Chronicle says Mr. Asquith informed the Cabinet that the time had arrived for the compulsion of unmarried men, and that he proposes to introduce a Bill forthwith. The Standard say's Mr. Asquith’s only course is to act boldly and promptly, and the country will respond enthusiastically. It will not be a misfortune if the Cabinet should be purged of certain notorious elements of weakness.

The Star §ays the crisis is purely fictitious, and is due to intriguers, who have been using for months every available weapon to break *up the unity of the Government.

The Pall Mala Gazette is more confident in its conviction that Mr. Asquith will adhere to his pledge, and let Lord Derby’s figures be published. Then the country will quickly settle what action is necessary. The New York World says conscription may be used as a cover for attacks on Mr. Asquith, but behind all there remains the irrepressible conflict between Liberalism and Toryism, in which Toryism knows io truce, however imminent the national peril. The Times, the Daily Mail, and the Daily News confirm the statement that the majority of the Cabinet have decided in favour of immediate legislation to provide for the compulsion of unmarried men. .

The Daily Chronicle says that the Cabinet is expected to reach a decision at a meeting on Thursday. Mr. Asquith, in the House of Commons on Wednesday, will announce that a Bill will be brought in, thus fulfilling his pledge to the married men, despite the fact that the question of calling up married men will not arise for nearly three months. The suggestion that Mr. Asquith had been coerced into an unyielding attitude by the threat of Mr. Lloyd George *s resignation is without foundation.

Lord Derby is opposed to a further canvass, believing that it would only be postponing the difficulty. The Chronicle states that of six hundred thousand unmarried men nnattested, under 300,000 will be available, after •excluding' the unlit, the

munitions workers, seamen, and railway men. The most important question arises, can Mr. Asquith introduce compulsion and preserve the unity of the- Cabinet? The Daily Chronicle says it is no secret that several) members of the Cabinet loathe compulsion. Mr. Eune!man is likely to resign, but being nn iptimate friend of Sir Edward Grey, he may be influenced by Sir Edward’s attitude.

Mr. McKenna, Mr. L. Hareonrt, Sir John Simon, the Hen. Ed. M ood, and the Lord Chancellor are the other sceptics. If Mr. Asquith keeps these colleague's it will be a wonderful exploit. Mr. Arthur Henderson’s attitude depends xipon that of the Labour Party, which also governs the action of Messrs. Bruce and George Eoberts. It is possible that the Irish Nationalists will be placated if Ireland is excluded from conscription. If the Bill; is impeded by obstructive tactics, the Government may appeal for a general election.

POLICY OF MAJORITY,

PRINCIPLE OF COMPULSION URGED.

LONDON. Dec. 2P

The Times says the' majority of the Ministers have agreed on the follow-

ing policy: (1) Mr. Asquith's pledge, binding the whole Government; (2) that it should be redeemed immediately; (3) the principle of compulsion should be accepted; (4) Mr. Asquith should make an announcement to this effect immediately.

When the House reassembled on Tuesday, Messrs. McKenna and Runciman, heading a considerable minority, opposed this course, believing that it would prejudice trade and finance. Their resignations, and possibly other Ministers’, are by no means out. of the question.

When the number of nnattested unmarried men disclosed was larger than most Ministers expected, the majority of the Cabinet decided it was not a negligible minority, and n difficult corner in t-lie Cabinet was thus safe?}* passed.