GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1916, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS.

NOTES FROM THE TIMES. ; AN UNTQPULAR EOITOK. Tiniea and Sydney Sun Services. Athens, Jan. 19. Greek soldiers 'beat M, Koutoupis, editor of the militant paper Nea Hollas, which caused uneasiness concerning the feeling of the army. KEW WEAPONS.. ' London. Jan. l!». Mr. Shepherd, writing from Salonika, says that men in the great war are now using clubs. The Austrian* and Germans'have befiij supplied with bludgeons, and at certain parts of the British front soldiers are furnished with spiked clubs for noiseless use in the trenches in night surprises. The Germans used a new shell in the Dardanelles propelled by an air-gun. It weighed and was loaded scrap-iron. x A GERMAN CLAIM. Count Revenciow is annoyed at Envoi' Pasha's arrogance about the Gallipoli campaign, and is publishing an article asserting that German officers brilliantly helped the Turks, and claiming that the German Chief of Staff was the pathfinder in organising Turkish resources, putting them in motion, and showing the moment for the road to. the goal. THE GERMAN REICHSTAG. Berne, Jan. 19. Tlci'r Liebknecht's interpellations in the Reichstag have not been published in Germany. He demanded the termination of the Armenian cruelties and the roughshod militarist rule in Belgium and Poland, pointing out that officers seized the goods of citizens and punished them without trial. He also complained of the reign of terror in Germany, where the military were arresting civilians, spying on telephones, and requisitioning property. He also alleged that the military prisons were crowded. THE KAISER'S OPERATION. London, Jan. 19. The Daily Mail's correspondent at Copenhagen says that reliable information from Berlin states that the Kaiser's physicians called in specialists three weeks ago. They examined his throat and removed a granule which was causing hoarseness. The Kaher has gained in weight <and is stronger than ever, indicating the incorrectness of the idea that he is suffering from cancer.

GERMA\ ASPIRATIONS. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received Jan. 20, iiJj p.m. London, Jan. 15. The Frankfurter Zeitung says that Italy's Balkan policy is permanently over and Russia's ended when Gallipoii wa* evacuated and the Montenegrin and (■Serbian kings fled. Austria, Greece, Jin]graria. and Turkey, who are leaning on Germany, will share in the new political structure, terminating the "confusion of centime*.'' A CANDID ADMISSION. In the Reichstag Ilerr Micliaelis, president of the corn administration, blurted out the fact that ihe harvest failed, saying: "The eastern harvest is small,, owing to the wet. We must l>e economical, despite the large stocks we hold in occupied territories." AFRAID OF RUSSIA The German press is circulating the idea that Russia should he granted an outlet to the Persian Gulf, thus removing Russia's organised motive for the war. UNDER NEUTRAL FLAGS. In the. Echo de Paris, M. Marcellutin demands the stoppage of the practice of vessels flying 'Dutch, Swedish, Spanisli and even Allied flags, and scattering mines, on the French coast. lie says that German agents buy and fake vessels, providing them with forged papers for the purpose of concealing mines. A RISE IK BEER CAUSES RIOTS. The increase in the price of beer to five kronen per hectolitre is occasioning riots in Vienna. Infuriated mobs destroyed a numlber of cafes, and the police dosed the bars. ALBANIANS MASSACRE SERBIANS. A Rome message says that the American Red Cross Society is hastily chartering vessels to transport Serbian refugees to Corsica from Albania, where the tribesmen are massacring them, alleging that Serbia intertdg to occupy the terri" tory permanently.