Chapter 252
GERMANY.
Oct. 16--Count Zeppelin is supervising construction of new airs.h.i.+ps; reinforcements sent to von Kluck; tax levied on Bruges.
Oct. 20--Report that Zeppelin fleet is being prepared for attack on London; Britons over 55 years old to be allowed to leave country.
Oct. 22--Chancellor Delbrueck announces in Prussian Diet that nation will not lay down arms until victory is won; pioneer company of Lorraine battalion granted right to wear skull and crossbones on caps.
Oct. 23--Women spies meet death bravely.
Oct. 24--Looting barred in Antwerp; survey of conditions shows many men eager to enlist.
Oct. 26--Prince of Monaco protests against manner in which Gen. von Buelow proposes to treat his property in France; Government complains of seizure by England of Red Cross s.h.i.+p Ophelia.
Oct. 27--Germans in Southern Hungary ask for aid.
Oct. 29--German tourists flock to Antwerp.
Oct. 30--Forty thousand teachers are at the front; 1914 reserves called out.
Nov. 1--Freedom of the City of Blankenburg conferred upon Capt. von Mueller of the cruiser Emden.
Nov. 3--Consuls of neutral nations allowed to inspect prison camps; Government will not interfere with cargoes of s.h.i.+ps carrying cotton to Russian ports.
Nov. 4--There is a shortage of army officers; the Kaiser decrees promotions on short service.
Nov. 7--Conspicuous insignia removed from officers; British civilians sent to detention camp.
Nov. 8--Nation regrets loss of Tsing-tau, but bravery of garrison is praised; border patrols prevent Belgian civilians from crossing into Holland.
Nov. 10--Admiral von Spee and many men of his squadron receive Iron Crosses.
Nov. 11--Fortifications of Antwerp are being repaired.
Nov. 15--Three defensive lines prepared between North Sea and the Rhine, to be used in event of retreat.
Nov. 16--Names of occupied French and Belgian cities are Germanized.
Nov. 17--All aliens expelled from Frankfort.
Nov. 18--Port of Hamburg deserted, but s.h.i.+pyards are busy.
Nov. 21--Blast furnaces used as crematory at Charleroi; Government has granted permission for six officers of the American Army to follow forces as military observers; Amba.s.sador
Nov. 23--Gen. von Eberhardt removed after defeat in the Vosges.
Nov. 24--Chile charges that German wars.h.i.+ps have violated her neutrality; there is a scarcity of copper; order for locomotives to be dismantled to get materials for making ammunition.
Nov. 25--Fortifications north of Kiel Ca.n.a.l are being strengthened for fear of invasion; Bavarians are reported by the French to be deserting.
Nov. 29--Indemnity of $37,500 paid to Luxemburg.
Nov. 30--Alsatians are deserting from the army.
Dec. 3--Burgomaster Max of Brussels complains of treatment received from Germans.
Dec. 4--Troops are suffering from typhoid; household utensils of copper are commandeered because of scarcity of the metal; British prisoner of war sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for attack on custodians.
Dec. 6--Second ban of Landsturm told to be ready for service on Dec.
20.
Dec. 8--Turkish officers are serving with the army in Poland.
Dec. 10--Government has informed the Pope of willingness for Christmas truce if other combatants will observe it.
Dec. 11--Many inhabitants of Autry, France, are exiled to Saxony; preparations are being made for an extended occupation of French territory; French Minister of War obtains affidavits from prisoners in concentration camps that Gen. von Stenger ordered killing of wounded.
Dec. 12--Some women refugees at Kiao-Chau want to go to America.
Dec. 14--Socialists disapprove of the anti-war stand taken by Dr.
Liebknecht, a Socialist member of the Reichstag, who alone of that body opposed the new war credit.
Dec. 15--Bavarian soldiers to be court-martialed for mutiny at Antwerp.
Dec. 18--Rumors that Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz will be the new Belgian King.
Dec. 19--Relations between the Prussian Government and the Poles have improved.
Dec. 21--George Weill, member of the Reichstag from Metz, is fighting in the French Army; Chile protests against alleged violations of her neutrality by the navy.
Dec. 22--Supplies in Ghent commandeered for Christmas celebration.
Dec. 24--Germany denies French charges that neutral s.h.i.+ps have been hired to lay mines in the Mediterranean.
Dec. 27--Commander of the Yorcke gets two-year term for losing vessel; German spy seized while trying to enter Gibraltar disguised as a Moor.
Dec. 30--British prisoner sentenced to death for a.s.saulting a German officer.
Dec. 31--Kaiser sends New Year's greetings to President Wilson and the United States; German press has received with exultation the news of American note on British interference with American commerce.
Jan. 7--United States State Department informs Amba.s.sador von Bernstorff that the United States cannot investigate the German charge that British use dumdum bullets; German military authorities in Belgium deny that Cardinal Mercier has been arrested.
HOLLAND.
Oct. 18--Government anxious to be relieved of care of Belgian refugees; is urging them to return home.
Oct. 19--Cities are feeling the strain of caring for Belgian refugees.