The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-08-22

Petrogrnd, August 21.-(via London
| IL ,35 p. m.)--A British submarine ha.
| torpedoed n German cruiser In the hal.
tic sea. This announcement is made In
an official statement.
London, August 2i.-Telegrams from
tc balkan capitals say Turco-BuIga
ian relations have reached the break
ing point and TINT Turkey Is strength
cning her Qualifications in Thrnce be-
cause of fear of a Bulgarian Invasion
No open breach between the Bulgnrs
and Turks is considered likely, how
| ever. until bulgaria learns whether the
Servian Parliament, which hns been In
secret session for three days, is will
Ing to cedc Macedonia to her.
Venizelos is back in power in Greece,
put 1t Is questionable whether he will
be so ready to join the allies as he was
before the political crisis which caused
his downfall early In the year.
Beyond reports of a naval engage
ment in the Gulf OF Riga in which. ac-
oording to German reports, the Rus
slams lost one destroyer and two gun
boats and the Germans one destroyer.
there has been little news from the
lighting areas This battle. apparently.
foreshadows another big German Of
fensise against Riga and throughout
the Baltic provinces. With the fall of
the Polish fortresses Won Hindenburg
now can command large reinforce
nients for this venture With Riga, as
sailed from sea and land, in German
hands, there may even be an attempt
TO advance toward Petrograd
Meantime however the Germans and
Austrians, following up their advant-
age, are endeavoring to make the
Brest-Litovsk line untenable for the
Russians. One of their armies already
is across the railway from Brest-
Litovsk to Bialystok, threatening to
divide the Russian forces at Brest-
LitovsS from those holding the line to
the northwest as Ossowetz. The Rus
slams still are making an orderly re-
treat, doing all the damage they can
and the Austro- Germans do not claim
any large captures. On the other bat
tie fronts there have been no events
OF lInportaHce.
London. August 21-(6:37 p. m.)--Three
Russian warships and one German war
ship all small vessels. have been sunk in
the battle in the Gulf of Riga. Official
announcement to this effect was made
today.
Two other German warships were put
out of commission during the engagement
One ran ashore and the other was dam
aged by gun fire.
The Russian vessels which were sunk
We're the gunboat Sivutch and Koreers
and torpedo boat. The German ships
sunk or put out of commission were all
torpedo boats The damaged German
boat was escorted to port.
Admiralty Statement
statement from the German admiralty
concerning the battle reads as follows.
Our Baltic naval forces penetrated the
Gulf of Riga after mine sweepers had
swept the mine field and net distractions.
In the outpost engagements which devel-
oped, a Russian torpedo boat of the Emlr
Pucharskii class was destroyed and other
torpedo boats, among them the Novik and
one large vessel were severely damaged
while retreating.
''On the evening of the 18th, in Moon
sound, the Russian gunboats Sivutch end
koreets were sunk by artillery fire and
torpedo boats after brave resistance
Forty members of the crews, including
two officers, some severely wounded, We're
rescued by our torpedo boats.
Three of our torpedo boats were dam
aged by mines. One sank one was run
aground ana one was escorted to port.
Our loss of life was small"
The Sivutch and Koreets were sister
ships of s57 tons displacement. They were
21S feet long, 36 feet beam and eight feet
deep. They were armed with two 47-nch
guns and four 3-inch guns. Their normal
complement was 40 men each.