Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-01-28
THE WAR TODAY

ties have been suffered by the Brit
ish forces so far in the war. The
official figures giving the total up
to Jan. 8, made public today, place
at 549,467 the number being made
up of 24,122 officers and 525,345
men.
Operations which may have an
important bearing on the Balkan
situation are taking place in Al
bania- The Austrians anu Bull
garians are making the most of
what appears TO be their present
opportunity to overrun the coun-
try, in which little effective OppO-
sition is apparent.
The Greeks are said to be REIN
forcing their detachments at Al.
bantam border points, and develop
ments as to the attitude to be
adopted by the Greek government,
in view of the Bulgarian activities
in southern Albania. are being
closely watched by entente inter-
ests i'm Greece, according to news
agency advices from Athens, there
being some distrust, it is said. re-
garding the policy of the Greek
government.
The British labor conference,
after yesterday adopting resOlu-
tons against cOmpulsiOn, but de-
clining to cOuntenance agitation
for the repeal of the military SER
vice measure slest the government
be embarrassed in its prosecution
of the war, today placed itself on
record for revision of the NUM-
tiOns act. The resolutions on the
subject voiced protest against
the war being made "pretext for
greater coercion and subsection of
labor The conference approved
the action of the executive COM
mittee of the labor party in parlia-
ment, in permitting labor men to
take office in the coalition govern.
ment.
Presumably in the further effort
to seek out hostile submarine
bases in the Mediterranean the
French have occupied the town Of
AntiphilO, opposite CastelOrizO on
the Asia Minor coast.
London dispatches reflect anxi-
ETY. over the possible fate OF the
British steamer Appam Of 1871
tons with 166 passengers on board,
bound from the French Senegal to
Plymouth and many days overdue.
She was routed to pass through
the Bay of Biscay, in which mines
were recently reported to have
been discovered. Other steamers
on the same route also are over
due.
While fighting Is going on both
along the western and eastern
fronts, no direct engagements are
reported.
In the west near Melville the
Germans claim to have taken six
hundred yards of trenches from
the French. The French assert
that the Germans were driven
from mine craters they had Occu-
pied and were repulsed in trying
to recapture them. The Germans
suffered serious losses in fight
for a mine crater in the ArgOnne
region, according to the French
report.
From Riga to East Galicia, on
the eastern front, fighting is in
progress, but no decisive battles
have been reported by either the
Russians or the Teut0nic allies.
In the Balkans, on the AustrO.
Italian front and in the Caucasus
region comparative quiet prevails.
The Turks have evacuated their
trenches on the land side of kut.
EI-Amara to about mile from the
entertainments occupied by the
British forces.
At Lausanne, Switzerland, a
crowd tore down Il German flag
which had been h0isted by the
German consul in honor of En-
perOr Williams birthday. The
federal council of Switzerland i'm.
mediately held an extraordinary
session at which an apology was
offered Germany for the insult Of
her flag. The city OF Lausanne is
in the French speaking section Of
Switzerland and it is said p0pu-
lar sentiment in favor of the al
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