EVENTS IN BIG EUROPEAN WAR Germans Deal Blows on Lens-Laon Front. Entente Success in Near Fnst. Allies Storm German Lines Saturday in Hitter Struck. Brit ish Take Bullecourt After Vi?or ous Action. Bloody Battle Alon* Scarpe River. The following is the Associated Press's European War summary for three days ending Sunday, as pub lished in the daily papers: Friday In the War. Bitter attacks by the troops of Crown Prince Rupprecht and the Ger man crown prince are being mude against the positions vital to the de fenses of Lens and Laon, held by the British and French. Field Marshal Haig and Gen. Nivelle are holding their recent gains and throwing back the attacking Germans with , heavy losses. South of the Souchez river, one ol the natural barriers to Lens, the Germans have made a third attempt to recapture the positions taken by the British Thursday, and for a third time have been thrown back. A momentary footing was won by Prince Rupprecht's men, aided by liquid fire, in the new British posi tions, but a brilliant counterattack recovered the lost trenches and left the British line unchanged. Around Cemy-en-Laonnois, on the plateau overlooking the Aislette river and only nine miles south of Laon, an important link in the German de fensive system in 1- ranee, the (icr man crown prince is expending his man power freely but ineffectually in an attempt to regain lost ground. Throwing his men in waves against ihe French on both sides of the vil lage, he succe&ied only in gaining about 200 yards of an advanced ele ment, but his gainjvas short lived, as a French counterattack immediate ly evicted the Germans. On the lengthy front in Macedonia the entente forces continue their of fensive with success between Doiran and the Cerna river. The British have checked Bulgarian attacks southwest of Doiran and hold their recently gained positions with a tena cious grip. ? ... West of Doiran and west of the Vardar river, French troops have car ried by storm an important position south of Puma on the Serbo-Greek border and withstood violent counter attack by the Bulgarians. Twenty miles to the west and also nearer the border, the Servians have captured two Bulgarian works north of Pojar. In addition to inflicting heavy losses qji the Germans and the Bulgarians "tTie entente forces in the ""R-edoninn theatre on Thursday and Friday cap tured 300 prisoners. The British government has issued a grave warning to munition workers on strike and gives jjotiuce of punish ment for the inciters of the strikes, which were not authorized by the trades unions of England Voluntary recruiting, the British war office announces, soon will be ex tended to men up to T>0 years of age, both single and married. Saturday In the War. Storming the German lines east of Arras along a 12 mile front British troops have forced hack the Germans at two impotant proints and have es tablished themselves in Bullecourt, the scene of many desperate strug gles recently. Heavy losses were in flicted on the Germans and more than 700 prisoners were taken. Without giving the armies of Crown Prince Rupprecht time to recover af ter the repulse of their ineffectual counterattacks, Field Marshal Haig early Saturday threw his forces pro tecting Douai and in each place gained his objective. At the southern end of the line was Bullecourt, pro tecting Queant. Here thousands have fallen in attacks and counterattacks in the last two weeks. The battle here lasted for many hours, during which the British firmly placed themselves in the village. Six miles to the north along the Arras-Crmbrai road and between the villages of Monsohy and Guemaphc the British straightened out their line by taking 1,200 yards of a German trench system. Around Roeux, north of the Scarpe and at the northern end of the attacking lines, Field Marshal Haig's men captured German posi tions on a front of about one mile and a half. Fourteen German airplanes were destroyed by the entente forces on Friday. According to the German war of fice dense masses of British troops were employed in delivering a series of attacks along the roads leading from Arras to Lens, Douai and Cam brai. One of the main points of as sault was in the vicinity of Bulle court, which has been the seen? of al most steady fighting for several days. One of the points captured by the British was Cavalry iarm < n the road between Arras and Cantbrai, to gether with a half mile of trenches north of it. Farther south the Ger mans throw a flying wedge against Guillemont farm, northeast of Har gicourt, and captured it, but were thrown out by a British counterat tack. The fighting was in progress at the Rocux railway station when the official reports were issued. French artillery continues to bom bard the German lines and munition depots along the Aisne front. The German war office asserts that the French were driven back at Bovelle ridge, in the vicinity of Cernay. There has been a violent artillery duel near Avercourt, on the left bank of the iMeuse, on the Verdun front. Resumption of an offensive move ment by the Russian forces operat ing in conjunction with the British campaign in Mesopotamia was an nounced Saturday by the Russian war office. The Russian troops crossed the I)iala river in the rear of the Turk ish forces which had retreated before the British advances and taken refuge in the Jabel Hamrin hills, abt>ut 100 miles northwest of Baddad. Farther north, on the Caucasian front, both Russian and Turkish forces have been on the offensive with alternate advances and retreats. In Macedonia the Servian troops have captured and held against coun terattacks several trenches on Dob ropolye heights, east of the Cerna river. Signs of renewed activity on the part of the British army invading Palestine are evident. The German admiralty asserts that a British destroyer was sunk in a naval engagement between the Dutch and English coasts on Thursday. Zeebrugge, on the Belgian coast, was heavily bombarded by warships early Saturday morning. Sunday In the War. After days of intensive fighting ,in which positions have changed hands numerous times, the British troops have recaptured the greater portion of the village of Bullecourt and re pulsed violent counterattacks deliver ed by the Germans east of the vil lage. , Along the Scarpe river to the east of Arras there also have been san guinary encounters, but again the ad vantage rested with Field Marshal Haig's forces. Portions of the village of Roeux have been taken by the British and another step forward has been gained by them on the western slopes of Greenland hill. There has been no let up in the air fighting which has been going on since the spring offensive began. Eleven German airplanes were ac counted for Saturday by the British ? ten of them in air battles and one by an anti-aircraft gun. The British themselves lost several machines. On the southern end of the line held by the French the Germans Sunday morning made strong attacks on the plateau of craonne on the sec tion north of Rheims, and in the re gion of Maisons de Champagne. Not alone did the French put down all these attacks with the fire of their ar tillery and rifles causing heavy cas ualties, /ait they pushed back the German line and in addition made prisoners. There still is no indica tion of the approach of any fighting of moment between the Austro-Ger mans and Russians in the Eastern fron^ from the Baltic sea to Rouma nia. Along this entire line of opera tions consist mostly of small skir mishes and reconnaissances. In Macedonia violent artillary duels are in progress along the entire front with the preponderance in the gun power apparently on the entente side. Sunday saw no infantry ac tions there. The Cost of High Living. Eighty-eight million gallons of whiskey were made in the United Stated last year. Who drank it all ? Fifteen billions cigarettes were manufactured in the United States last year. Who smoked them all ? Thirty-two million pounds of snuff were manufactured in the Unit ed States last year? Who did all the sneezing? Two hundred and twenty million p> unds of smoking tobacco were made in the United States last year. Who had all the pipe-dreams? Eight and a half billion cigars were made in the United States last year. Who made all the smoke? Half a million packages of chew ing-gum were manufactured last year in the United States. Who worked their jaws? Twenty thousand moving-picture theatres paid $25,000,000 for films last year and 11,000,000 persons saw the moving pictures. Where did they get all the dimes and nickels? ? John A. Steicher, in Leslie's Weekly. The coir nencement of St. Mary's School at Raleigh, will be in progress May n 29, and the principal ad dross will be d divered May 29 by Go1 ernor Bicketl. The commencement sorm >n will be by Bishop Darst, of the Eastern Carolina Diocese, Sunday, May 27th. CHANGES IN COTTON LESSEN. Fluctuation** Still Narrowing, With Comparatively Little Net Alteration. Wherers the leading cereals, and especially wheat, are still a sensa tion, price movements in cotton are not now a conspicuous feature. With an extreme fluctuation of less than 00 points on the average, the south ern staple no longer compels general attention, and the market this week reflected comparatively little net al teration. Thus, the list ended only 5 to 20 points above last Saturday's closing, and on one occasion it was 1 32 to 37 points lower, with May ! down to 19.35c, July to iy.l4c.;~and October to 18.30c. These figures rep- ! resent losses of from about $7 to $11 | a bale, the latter on July, from the top levels reached on the striking up turn a month ago, and the spot quo tation has yielded fully $7. To a not inconsiderable extent, the recent depression in cotton may be properly attributed to the influence of the war situation. The effects of the economic readjustments necessitated by this nation's participation in the conflict are now more clearly appa rent in business and speculative cir cles, and doubts about future changes cause hcsitancy in not a few quarters. Government expenditures of magni tude stimulate activity io many direc tions and large quantities of cotton are being used in the manufacture of military supplies, and more will later be required for this purpose. Yet the practice of economy on the part of the public is growing, be cause of the extreme prices and for other reasons, and reports of a les sened distribution of dry goods, due in some measure also to the unseason able weather, arc not now uncommon. The suggestion of taxation, more over, has affected cotton, as well as securities, and the liquidation in Wall Street has precipitated not a little selling of options in the southern commodity. As an offset, crop advices are not so favorable, on the whole, and interior offerings of the actual staple arc said to be less liberal. ? Dun's Review, 12th. Wheat Prices and Bread. New York Times. It is more than possible that much of the advance in the price of wheat, which has led to the rise in the cost of bread to consumers, is due to spec ulation. No one contends that there will not be enough wheat until the new crops starts coming in, a period only about eight or ten weeks distant. While the Government reports during the last week was rather pessimistic as to Winter wheat, the fact was brought out that it was in better shape than it had been, and there is every indication that much of the deficiency may be made up by the crop of Spring wheat. Another en couraging sign is that exports of the article are dwindling. In the nine months ended with March the exports were about 28,000,000 bushels less than in the corresponding period the year before, and about 105,000,000 bushels less than in the similar period the year before than. It is noteworthy that about 50 per cent of the decrease for the nine months ended with March was in the exports of February and March of this year. Exports of wheat flour in the nine months period were about 3,000,000 barrels less than in the similar period the year before, the groat percentage of decrease be ing also