GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 February 1916, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS.

NOTES FROM THE TIMES. THE FALL OF ERZERUM. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, Fell. 23. The German press is belatedly discussing the fall of Erzerum. The Cologne Gazette, referring to the possibility of a Kurdish revolt, cynically states that the Armenian population has been too 1 weakened seriously to co-operate in a rising. The Hamburger Nachrichten suggests that Turkey received the news with unequalled calmness, because the loss was not published. The Frankfurter Zeitung realises the gravity of the situation and is denouncing the- dangerous attempt to hush it up. The Turks need determined leadership and considerable reinforcements. COUNT BERNSTORFF. The Times' correspondent at Washington severely discounts the rumor that Count Bernstorff is likely to be handed his passports owing to indiscreet statements in the newspapers. NEW ALBANIA SUGGESTED. The Times' Athens correspondent states that, the newspapers are giving prominence to reports from influential Bulgarian politicians advising the creation of a greater Albania under Prince Cyril, including part of Serbia. TURKS TALK OF PEACE. It is rumored that the Turks approached M. Morcentsau, who was taking a holiday in Constantinople, with a view to sounding Russia for a separate peace. BOMBARDMENT OF ASIA MINOR. Mr. Jeffries writes that the Allies are regularly bombarding the Asia Minor coast, especially the entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna. BRITISH NAVY PERSONNEL. Dr. MacNamara, writing to Mr Parker, stated that the navy's active list at the beginning of the war was 140,000 officers, men and boys;.it is now 320,000. and is expected to reach 350,000. Eighty-five thousand men are employed in the royal dockyards. PESSIMISTIC HAMBURGERS. A pessimistic debate was held by the Hamburg Hovya of Burgesses regarding trade after <fie war, members declaring that the Imperial Government's bureaucratic handling of the national finances was killing initiative and threatening the whole oversea, trade.

DOMINATING THE DUMA. The Times' correspondent at Petrograd says that three large groups, Nationalists, Progressives, and SLaborites, have formed a bloc for overwhelming and dominating the Duma,