THE BALKANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1915, Page 5

THE BALKANS.

DEFENCES AT SALONIKA. FINDS IN THE TRENCHES. SERBIANS TO ARRIVE. London, fjw. 29. Reuter's correspondent at tee British headquarter.? in Macedonia says that few sites are better adapted to scientific defence. The position recalls Chntalja, but the valley is broader and the hill? higher. The lines form a fifty railed semi-cirele from Valdar to Gualfrcndina, whereof half is naturally defended by Lakes Longaza and Bcsnik and many morasses. A girdle of hills southwards guards the approaches to Salonika, furnishing admirable emplacement* for big guns and machine-guns. We are utilising some barbed wire entanglements which the Turks constructed in the first Balkan war. The region is full of historic interest, and the trench diggers are continually unearthing coins, statuettes and pottery. Athens, Dec. 29. Seventy-five thousand Serbian troops have been reorganised and concentrated at Scutari and El Bassan. It is proposed to transfer them to the Salonika front. BULGARIAN BLUSTER. A SPEECH IN THE SOBRANJE. Amsterdam, Dec. 29. King Ferdinand, in a bombastic speech at the opening of the Sobranje, said that after exhausting all efforts to induce Serbia in order to shorten the sufferings treacherously taken from Bulgaria, the latter had been compelled to invade Serbia in order to shorten the sufferings of their enslaved brethren in Macedonia, The Bulgarians fought with matchless dash, and in co-operation with the brave troops of their allies, who covered themselves with glory, completely defeated the perfidious enemy and drove him out of his own country. Moreover, the troops which two great Powers, France and England, to the disgrace of civilisation and their own countries, sent against the tortured Bulgarian nation, in order to maintain Serbian tyranny, were chased out of Macedonia. M. Radoslavoff, replying to the Agrarian Party's interpellation, said he had been officially informed that Greece would not permit Allied troops to land at Kavalla. RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE IMMINENT. CZAR m BESSARABIA. MONTENEGRIN SUCCESSES. Rome, Dec. 29. The Milan Secolo states that General von Hindenburg is expected in the Balkans to confer with Generals von Mackensen and Falkenhayn. The garrison at Sofia consists of three Austrian and one German regiments. The Russian fleet has mined the entrances to Bulgarian ports in order to immobilise the Bulgarian and German warships. According to Bucharest newspapers the Czar has arrived at Bessarabia to inspect the army prior to a Russian offensive, which is described as imminent. Official reports from Cettigne state that the. Montenegrin army, reinforced by Serbian corps, has resumed the offensive at all points, particularly at Sanjak. The Austrians have been ejected from Montenegro, also from Sanjak, where the Montenegrins recaptured several villages. Athens, Dec 29. Aviators report that the Germans and Bulgars are entrenching, apparently fearing the Entunte forces will attack. They cannot themselves invade Greek Macedonia until their numbers are more favorable. WOOING OF ROUMANIA. RUSSIA'S MISSION SUCCESSFUL. Received Dec. 30, 8.5 p.m. Berne, Dec. 29. The Pester Lloyd states that the Russian mission in Roumania has been fully successful. Roumania will either side openly with the Entente, or merely allow the Russian troops to cross Roumania. "BULGARIAN FOR EVER." MORE BLUFF. Received Dec. 30, 11.25 p m „ o - Sofl &. Roc. 30. M. badoßtavoff, addressing a Ministerial party, arid that all territory whereon our brave soldiers are fighting shall be Bulgarian for ever.