Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-01-25

days of fighting the bolsheviki forces
had seized Irkutsk, eastern Siberia;
disarmsag the Cossacks and military
cadets. They also have occupied Oren-
burg.
Among the interesting reports that
came out of Russia was one to the
effect that the former car and his
family had made their escape from
Tobolsk. Another story said the for
mer czarina has become hopelessly in
sane.
IA
The abandonment of the Roumanian
front by the Russian troops led to a
nasty little row. Roumanians arrested
and disarmed several Russian regi-
ments, and the Russian government at
once put under arrest the Roumanian
diplomats in Petrograd and threatened
war on Roumania if the Russian SOL
diers were not at once freed. A strong
joint protest by representatives of all
the allied and neutral powers brought
liz Ci0Ao vi lhC III
diplomats.
Then came an astonishing order
from the bolsheviki government for
the arrest of King Ferdinand of Rou-
mania and his incarceration in the
fortress of st. Peter and st. Paul. This
was attributed to the action of the
Roumanians in arresting some Aus
f-ian afHaorc uhO hnd atfonnItod tO
pass through the Roumanian lines to
fraternize with the Russians.
Ia
The British labor party came to the
front on Tuesday with a message to
the Russian people announcing that
the British people accepted the prin-
ciple of self-determination of peoples
and no annexations for the British en-
pire, especially in the middle East, At
RIGA and India. The manifesto con-
cluded with an appeal to the peoples
of central Europe to help end the war
by the defeat of militarism on both
sides, and not to drive the British peo-
pie, as they are driving the Russians,
into the terrible choice between con-
tinuing the conflict and abandoning the
only principles that can save the world.
IA
There is not much to be written of
the weeks fighting. The German pa
pers were talking openly of the com
ing great offensive ON the west front
and asserted that a million more troops
had been sent into france, but Won
Hindenburg still delayed the blow. The
activity of the aviators was notable,
and the allied flying men made several
successful bombing raids on German
cities, Karlsruhe especially being hard
hit.
In Italy the main event of the week
was a surprise attack by the Italians,
supported by the French, by which GER
tain important dominating positions on
Monte Asolone were wrested from the
Austrians and their observation posts
destroyed.
On Wednesday the Austrians made
lost positions. For four hours they at.
tackled f~iercely and were s~tubbornly
fought off, finally retiring, leaving the
field covered with their dead.
Ia
The German submarines have not
been very active of late, the weekly re-
port of the British admiralty showing
only six large British vessels and four
smaller ones sunk. One of the sub
mersibles, however, emerged off Var
mouth and shelled that pretty English
city violently. Three persons were
killed.
Further evidence that the submarine
service is most distasteful to the Ger
man sailors is contained in the report
from Geneva of another mutiny among
the submarine crews at Kiel, the Ger
man naval base. T~hirty-eight officers
are said to have been killed. The mum
Der of U-boats returning to German
ports is decreasing every month, &C.
cording to the Geneva correspondent.
Ia
France is in the throes of a new Gail
laux scandal, the former premier being
now under arrest on a charge of trea-
son. The affair was brought to a crisis
by information supplied by Secretary
Lansing, for it appears that Caillaux
engaged in intrigues with Count Won
Luxburg in Argentina in 1915 and was
in communication with the foreign Of
flee at Berlin with the object of con-
Guiding peace. His plotting in Italy
also has been exposed and documents
seized there show he planned to make
himself dictator of France and to with
draw that country from the war,
$500 A. .zs---.