April 18—­Enver Pasha, War Minister and Generalissimo of the Turkish Army, in a newspaper interview lays the blame for Turkey’s participation in the war on Russia and England; he says Turkey has a well-prepared army of 2,000,000.

April 24—­Refugees who have reached the Russian line near Tiflis, Transcaucasia, report that widespread massacres of Armenians are being carried out by Mohammedans; they state that all the inhabitants of ten villages near Van, in Armenia, Asiatic Turkey, have been killed.

April 27—­An appeal for relief of Armenian Christians in Turkey is made to the Turkish Government by the United States; a plot is discovered to blow up the council chamber in the Ministry of War at Constantinople during a session of the War Council.

April 29—­The War Minister has called all available men to arms; Kurds are massacring Christians in Armenia.

UNITED STATES.

April 1—­Secretary Bryan orders an inquiry into the circumstances of the arrest by the authorities in Paris of Raymond Rolfe Swoboda, stated to be an American citizen, held in connection with the recent fire on the French liner La Touraine in mid-ocean; the State Department is investigating the death of Leon Chester Thrasher of Hardwick, Mass., who was lost when the British steamer Falaba was sunk by a German submarine; information is being sought as to whether Thrasher was an American citizen at the time of his death.

April 2—­The Government is informed by the British Government, through Ambassador Page, that no trade messages can be sent over British cables if they refer to transactions in which the enemies of Britain are interested.

April 5—­Text is made public of the United States note to Germany, recently presented by Ambassador Gerard, demanding payment by the German Government of $228,059.54, with interest from Jan. 28, for the destruction of the American sailing ship William P. Frye by the German converted cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich; Secretary Bryan makes public the text of the identic notes recently sent by the United States to the British and French Governments protesting against invasion of neutral rights involved in the recent British Order in Council, establishing a long-range blockade of European waters; the note insists on the right of innocent shipments “to be freely transported to and from the United States through neutral countries to belligerent territory, without being subjected to the penalties of contraband traffic or breach of blockade, much less to detention, requisition, or confiscation”; it is reported from Washington that the reason for the order, issued a few days ago, for the recall of the five American Army officers who have been acting as military observers in Germany, is due to the growing feeling of hostility to Americans in Germany, and the belief that it is wise to withdraw the officers before they become involved in any incident