The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1915-05-14
warning NATIONS
NAvIES ARE ACTIVE
SINKING OF MERCHANTMEN AND
SMALL WAR CRAFT HOLDS At
TENTION OF WORLD.
FIGHTING IN DARDANELLES
The Allied Land Forces Have En-
trenched Themselves in the Darda.
neIes in Preparation of Ad-
vance Against Turks.
Latest News From the Front.

Naval activities have come to tn.
forefront again in the campaign. The
American oil tank steamer GulfIight,
bound for French port, has been tor.
pedoed off the Sicily islands; the
French steamer Europe was sent to
the bottom near Bishops rock; the
British steamer FuIgent was sunk by
a submarine off Skellig rocks.
A German submarine has sunk the
British torpedo boat destroyer Recruit
in the North Sea- Two German tor
pedo boats sunk the trawler Colon
bia, seventeen fishermen being drown
ed, and were in turn pursued and sunk
by British destrOyers. Two German
officers and forty-four men were res.
cued by the destroyers.
The French have bombarded the en-
trenched camp of Metz and announced
that their fires have proved efficacious
against one of the forts, the barracks
and the railways nearby.
The French occupation of the sum.
nit of Hartmans Weilerkopf is con.
firmed in dispatch from a CORE.
spondent who has just returned to
Paris from visit to the French posi-.
tons there. The entire hill has been
devastated as result of the desperate
fighting which has been going on
there for weeks.
German forces to the southwest Of
Mitau, capital Of CORTLAND, and their
operations in the Baltic provinces
seemingly have taken the Russians off
their guard.
Both Russians and Austrians claim
successes in the Carpathians, while in
Poland the fighting that is now in
progress has shown no decisive advan.
tage for either side.
The British war office announces
that twenty-six men Of the British
fleet were killed and fifty-three
wounded in the landing operations
against the Dard9pelles, between April
rs and April go IAN unofficial dis
patch from Athens says that 1000
French troops were landed on the
Asiatic side, but returned to their
transports after the purpose for which
they were intended-suppOrting the
occupation of certain points by the
British-had been accomplished.
A white paper has been issued by
the British government embodying re-
ports tending to show that the drink
habit is having very serious effect
on the output of war munitions and
repairs to the warships and transport
service.
The Dardanelles is the central point
of interest. The British and French
landing forces, according to the brief
reports from the British war office,
have succeeded In securing a firm
foothold on the Gallipoli Peninsula
and on the Asiatic side # the strait.
These eXpeditionary forces are said
in some quarters to number $4,000
men, but it is hardly considered like
ly that this number has yet been put
ashore. The southern section of the
peninsula hasvbeen occupied and in
trenched and steady, though prob
ably slow, advance is being made.
Russians again have taken the Of
fensive against the Turkish Invaders
of Persia and have driven them from
the border town of Kotur.
A hostile aiicraft-whether a Zeppe-
lin or an aeroplane is not known
raided Ipswich, England, early Friday
morning. Several bombs were drop
ped.
There has been marked activity on
the part of airmen for several days
past. A squadron of allied ayiators
has made raid on Friedrichshafen
and one of them dropped six bombs on
the Zeppelin hangers. The nature of
the damage is not known, but one of
the hangers is said to have caught
fire.
French ayiators have dropped
bombs on the stations at BollweiIer,
Chambley, Arnaville and a railway
junction in Alsace-Lorraine as well as
on the station, the bridge and factory
at Leopoldshoehe in Baden.
The French cruiser Leon Gambetta
has been torpedoed by the Austrian
submarine Us in the Strait of Otranto,
the waterway leading to the Adriatic
Sea.
French warships in the Adriatic
have limited their activities to watch
ing in the Strait of Otranto, with the
idea of preventing any Austrian sub
marine escaping from the Adriatic
and reaching the coast Ct Turkey.
The cruiser has been run ashore.
Fears are entertained that she may
float away on the next high tide.
Details of the massacre of native
Christians at Urumiah, Persia, re-
ceiTed Thursday by the Presbyterian
board Of foreign missions at New
York state that not less than 800 have