VERDUN FAILURE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1916, Page 5

VERDUN FAILURE.

* INCREASES BULGARIA'S MISERT. ■«•''■! 1, :*"*' ;: " " Milan, April 7. From a prominent gentleman who arrived at Brindisi direct from Bulgaria, the Tribuna gleans "the information that the German failures "below Verdun have spn'ad in Germanophile centres in Bulgaria. A smashing victory had been counted upon and boasted about, which would have forthwith permitted the partial demobilisation of the Bulgarian array. so as to set free many thousands of hands needed for agriculture. As things are, the fields are utterly abandoned', Misery prevails everywhere, and once well-to-do people in the Bulgarian capital are actually to ,bo seen ■begging in Uie streets and cafca oi Sofia. ° The terrible distress ha« caused sanguinary rioting at Palanka, where the troops have refused to • fire on the crowds. At Jamboli, however, the soldiery used weapons against the mob, and among those shot down was a prominent town councillor. When the Tribuna informant left Sofia it was common talk that Tsar Ferdinand was uneasy and depressed over the prospective state of the Allied Empires. Unusual importance was attributed to the Sovereign's action in hurrying to the Premier's private residence, where their conversation lasted considerably over an hour. The.Messaggero special correspondent at Bucharest wires that a commission of officers left that capital on Tuesday for Russia, via Ungheni, for the pni<, pose of making significant purchases on behalf of the Roumanian Government. The great railway bridge IWvg Jasey and Ungheni on the manian frontier has been remodetttd t« permit the transit of larger gauge 'Ru|* siau rolling stock.