, 1918-08-22

Geneva dispatches said the Austria
Swiss frontier was closed for some
days and all trains were full of Aus
trian troops going to the Italian front,
which was taken to meal another COM
ing offensive there. However, the Ital-
ians were ready for 1t and daily i'm
proved their positions, especially in
the mountains.
In Albania the Austrians evacuated
all points held by them south of the
Semeni river.
An amazing development is the seiz-
ure of Baku, center of the Caspian sea
oil district, by a British force which
made its way up through Mesopotamia
and Persia.
The parlous condition of the central
powers resulted in a "kaiser confer
ence" at German main headquarters
which was attended by the rulers of
Germany and Austria and their chief
advisers and by representatives of the
Turks, Bulgarians and Russian bolshe-
wiki. The internal situation in Aus
tria-Hungary especially is growing
worse-or rather better-daily an ex-
plosion there almost any day would
not greatly surprise anyone. Bulgaria
shows signs of breaking away from
its confederates, and as for Turkey, the
general public knows nothing of what
is going on there or what is expected.
IA
The situation in Russia, including
Siberia, also is improving, for the
forces opposed to the bolsheviki and
the Germans are growing stronger and
amalgamating. The possibility of es-
%tablishing an eastern front that will
seriously worry the Huns is being con-
sidered, especially since the supreme
government of the northern territory"
embracing half a dozen districts, has
declared itself opposed to the Germans
n ready to fight them. Possession
of the port of Archangel and the Muir
man coast gives the allies an inlet
for troops to help this movement. That
Germany recognizes the n is evil
dent from the facts that she is sending
more soldiers from the west front to
Russia, and has ordered Finland to
prepare to make war IN the people of
Murmansk and the allies there. Dis
patches from Helsingfors declared the
Germans intend to occupy P~etrograd,
though what they would gain by pos
session of that hunger-stricken city is
not apparent. Lenine and Trotsky
and their soviet government were re-
ported to have fled from Moscow to
Kronstadt, the great fortress neal
P%etrograd, and to have placed the exc
cution of power in the hands of a tri-
umvirate composed of Lenine, Trotsky
and Zinovieff. Lerine also Issued a
manifesto urging the pitiless annihila-
ton Of all Observation-Disclosures.
Moscow being admittedly in the con-
troll of the Observation-Disclosures, the
German embassy also fed from that
city to Pskov, which greatly %perturbed
the German press.
The diplomats Of all the allied pow
ers, nov living on warships at Arch
angel, have demanded of Trotsky an
explanation of his threat that Russia
would declare war against Anglo
French imperialism"
-A-
The first American regiment sent to
Siberia. the Twenty-seventh regular in
fantry from Manila, landed at Vladi-
vostok Thursday, and other Yankees
are on the way.
The Czecho-Slovaks in eastern ST.
IBERIA now have the assistance of Brit
ish and French forces which landed at
yladivostok and Joined them in the
Usuri river valley. Those in western
Siberia were last reported as engaged
in a desperate battle with a large boil
shsvik army.
A long step forward in the moral
support Of these fighting Czechs and
of their fellow nationals who are in
rebellion against Austria-H Hungary was
the formal recognition by Great Brit
ain of the Czecho-Slovaks as an al
lied nation and of their armies as an
allied force regularly waging warfare
against the central powers. II is
hoped and believed America and other
allied nations will follow the example
of Great Britain.
Last weeks dispatches told of furi.
GUS and bloody riots against the Ger,
mans In several Russian cities, caused
by the attempts of the Huns to seize
foodstuffs.
The activities of German U-boats OF
the Atlantic coast have grown so an.
noying that the cabinet is said to have
devoted a long meeting to discussing