AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1917, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

THE RIOTS. GENERAL STRIKE THREATENED.. GERMANS PREPARED TO ENTER HOLLAND. WILL PROBABLY QUIT BELGIAN COAST. Received July 8, 5.5 p.m. Amsterdam, July G. The rioting has almost completely been suppressed. The revolutionary committee decided to terminate the strike and proclaim a general strike in the event of the Government declining to prohibit all exports of food. A refugee from Ostond, who has reached Holland, that German officers openly confess that the British are likely to force the Germans to quit the coast. Hindenburg has already taken precautions to that end, and, if compelled, is prepared to per Holland and establish a naval base on the Scheldt. Ostend was recently a veritable den of submarines, but the result of the British attacks on the naval workshops has completely destroyed them. Many Germans were killed, including eight inside the lighthouse.

SOLDIERS FIRE ON RIOTERS. Received July 8, 5.1 p.m. Amsterdam, July 0. The riots have been renewed. The strikers molested the artillery workers, and the crowd refused to disperse. The soldiers fired and killed one, injuring twelve. CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS SHELVED. AN INSIGNIFICANT SOP OFFERED. Received July 8, 1.5 p.m. Berne, July 6. In the Reichstag the party leaders accepted Herr Hollweg's demand for shelving the Constitutional Committee's reform proposals, with the exception of the resolutions whereby the 24 constituencies which have a population exceeding 200,000 are to he allowed two deputies instead of one. This insignificant reform, which is not realisable this year, is granted as a sop to the agitators. DEMAND FOR FRANCHISE. A SENSATIONAL MANIFESTO. ~ ~ Amsterdam, July 6. The Constitutional Comjnittee of the Reichstag discussed the question of the suffrage. Both Socialist parties urged immediate legislation. Herr Meuller, a Progressive, affirmed that the Reichstag possessed sovereign powers in connection with the suffrage. The national Liberals support but the Conservatives and the Centre party are opposed to Herr Meuller's view. According to the Socialist Majority organ, the International Korrespondenz, the Socialists will henceforth ma3ce the vote of war credits dependent on internal (political reform. London, July 6. The Daily Chronicle's corrcsipondent at Amsterdam states that leading Conservative professors in Germany, including Herrs Delbruek and Emil Fisk, have issued a remarkable manifesto urging tie immediate passing of general direct secret equal franchise to keep faith with 'the people. This would show that the Government trusts to notion as the nation deserves. The manifesto has caused a sensation as the signatories were hitherto strongly apposed to franchise reform. AUSTRIAN AMNESTY LIMITED. Received July 8, 5.5 p.m. Amsterdam, July 6. Advices from Vienna state thaat Kramarcz was not included in the amnesty, which excludes crimes against the safety of the State.

AN EXCUSE FOR HOIiLiWEG. Received July 8, .p.m. Amsterdam, July 7. Herr Woeirgang Heine, a deputy of the .Reichstag, in a speech at .Cologne, said his recent conversations "with Herr Hollweg enaibled him to say that after being prepared to conclude .peace without indemnity or annexation west or east, Herr Hollweg's failure to express himself publicly to this effect, definitely, was not due to lack of earnestness, 'but because the fact of his holding the Chancellorship compelled him to have regard to the privileges of the people around him. In the Reichstag, Herr Van Roedern announced that the cost of the war from February to May averaged three million marlc3 monthly. AN OFFICIAL REPORT. A. & N.Z. Cable Association & Reuter. Received July, 8, 1.1 p.m. London, July 6. A wireless German official report states: An artillery battle developed between Zborow and Brzezany, and was also lively at Zwyzyn, Brody and Sraorgon. Roumanian preparations to attack southward of Casinu Valley were dispersed under fire. The enemy is xestless in the region of the Danube. SAXON DIET UKGES [REFORMS. London, July 6. During a deibate in the Second Chamber of the Saxon Diet several National Liberal memlbera stated that the whole country was seething with distrust of the King and Government. The Socialist vice-president, Herr Frassorf, who recently returned from the front, stated that he was qualified to give a. 'warning that the troops at the front were no longer actuated by a spirit of loyalty to the throne but Iby patriotism. . j Dr. Dophel endorsed this view and said he feared grave consequences unless some solution was found. The Diet passed a resolution urging immediate democratic administration reforms throughout the empire.