The Siege of Kut-El-Amara.-At the beginning of the year a British army under General Townshend was besieged in Kut-el-Amara, on the Tigris 95 miles below Bagdad and 200 miles above Basra, which lies near the head of the Persian Gulf. This army had advanced to Ctesiphon, 18 miles from Bagdad, in the summer and autumn of 1915; it had been defeated at Ctesiphon, and in its retreat had been surrounded and compelled to stand a siege. General Townshend reached Kut on Dec. 3, 1915. The troops were worn out by their long fighting retreat from Ctesiphon. They were surrounded on the 8th. The Turks made heavy attacks for five days beginning on Dec. 8, and again at Christmas. These attacks were costly and unsuccessful and the Turks settled down to starve out the garrison.

and 440 miles east of the railhead of | erse Asia Minor to the East. The Angora. The Russian command of Russian troops, supported by the the Black Sea restricted the Turks fleet, took Trebizond on April 18. The to the long and difficult communica- garrison retreated with small loss tion by wagon road to Angora. In southward towards Genus-Khana and three days in January the Russians Erzingan. On July 26 the Russians sank 200 Turkish small vessels on the took Erzingan. While their army was Black Sea and the total number sunk concentrated near that town, the by the end of February reached 4,000. Turks took Mush and Bitlis early in For the attack of Erzerum the Rus- August. On Aug. 25 Petrograd resians possessed a good railway which ported the recapture of Mush by the ran from Tiflis via Kars to Sarika- Russians. This virtually completed mish, 80 miles from the fortress. Gen- the Russian occupation of Turkish eral Yudenitch, who, under the direc- Armenia. tion of the Grand Duke Nicholas, was in immediate command of the Russian forces, advanced on Erzerum on Jan. 11, in three columns on a front of 70 miles. On Jan. 16 the central column on the Kars-Erzerum road was held up at the bridge over the Araxes at Kuprikeui, 33 miles from Erzerum. A Russian battalion forced the passage of the bridge in a blinding snow storm on the 18th, and three Turkish divisions were driven in utter rout back upon the fortress. By the 26th, when the Russians were ready to attack, the Turkish front had been driven in for 50 miles, three Turkish divisions had been isolated from the main army, and 100,000 men were collected in the fortress. The Russians were not in sufficient numbers to surround it, and a pause ensued until Feb. 12, while they brought up siege guns and ammunition. After a four days' attack, the Turks evacuated the city and the Russians entered on the 16th. They captured 235 officers and 12,753 unwounded men, 323 guns, nine standards, and vast supplies of ammunition and stores. The Russians took the important fortified city of Bitlis near the western end of Lake Van, 110 miles south of Erzerum, on March 2, and thus completed a stage in their advance toward Mesopotamia, as Bitlis commands the road which descends from the Armenian plain to Mesopotamia. Mush, 50 miles from Erzerum, fell on Feb. 18.

Russian troops landed from the fleet on March 4 and captured Atina on the Black Sea coast, 60 miles east of Trebizond, the chief Turkish port at the eastern end of the Black Sea, and the departure point, in peaceful times, of all the great caravans that trav

The position at Kut-el-Amara was a peninsula on the left bank of the Tigris, formed by a loop of the river, 3,200 yds. from north to south and 1,700 yds. wide. On the right bank the British held two detached posts. Kut is a place of no resources, but, nevertheless, a large supply of grain was discovered on Jan. 24. The miserable Arab town was full of wounded, for the British suffered 1,840 casualties during the first month of the siege, and the medical supplies failed. Scurvy broke out on Feb. 5. When the Arab inhabitants, who numbered 6,000, attempted to leave the town, they were fired upon by the Turks and driven back, in order to increase the number of mouths to be fed. A relief column under General Aylmer (who was succeeded by General Gorringe) set out from Ali Gharbi on Jan. 6. After many battles it was finally checked at Sanna-i-Yat on

General Smuts, after being delayed by the seasonal rains, advanced along the Tanga railway upon Wilhelmstal, the central point of a large plantation region. Wilhelmstal fell on June 9. On July 9 General Smuts occupied Tanga, which lies 77 miles south of the British East African port of Mombasa.

coast in a northwesterly direction in- | Van Deventer established himself at to German East Africa. The Central Kondoa Irangi, 100 miles north of Railway runs from Dar-es-Salaam the Central Railway. Meanwhile, across the central part of the colony to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, which lies on the western boundary. Farther north the Tanga Railway, a shorter line, runs from Tanga on the coast to Moshi, near Mount Kilimanjaro on the northern border. Across the boundary line in British East Africa a British railway parallels the two German lines and the boundary between the colonies, running from Mombasa on the coast to Port Florence on Victoria Nyanza.

on

After the fall of Wilhelmstal and Tanga the Germans concentrated their forces in the Nguru Hills about 80 miles from the coast opposite ZanziThe main body of the German forces bar. Here General Smuts defeated was concentrated between Voi in Brit- them between Aug. 9 and Aug. 11 and ish East Africa and the Kitovo Hills, drove them south towards the Central on the eastern side of the great moun- Railway. On July 29 General Van tain of Kilimanjaro in the northeast- Deventer occupied Dodoma on the ern part of German East Africa, Central Railway and began an adabout 15 miles from the important vance eastward toward the coast at town of Moshi. They held Taveta in Dar-es-Salaam. This city, which has British East Africa. The position of a population of 1,000 Europeans and the German forces protected the rich 50,000 natives and is the principal German plantations on the uplands port and seat of government of Gersouth of Kilimanjaro. Lieutenant- man East Africa, surrendered General Smuts, in command of the Sept. 4 to a combined land and naval British forces, advancing from Voi force. The German troops retreated along a branch of the British East south across the Central Railway and African Railway, captured Taveta on were driven from Kissaki on Sept. 15, March 9, and drove the German ad- where they abandoned 65 European vance troops back upon the Kitovo Germans, 34 of whom were sick in a Hills, where a severe battle raged hospital, which was left behind with from morning until midnight on its entire personnel. The Germans March 11. The German native troops abandoned the greater part of their broke on the 12th and retreated to the heavy artillery and retreated, toward Tanga railway. Moshi fell on the the latter part of October, into the 13th, and the Germans retreated region of the lower Rufigi River. southward along the railway. On the Meanwhile the Belgians had overrun retreat the British captured, at the the northwest part of the German colcrossing of the Rufu River, a 4.1-in. ony and the Portuguese and General gun which had formed part of the ar- Northey's Rhodesians had driven the mament of the Königsberg. On April Germans out of the extreme southern 6 a British detached force under Gen- part of the colony. The central point eral Van Deventer captured 15 Ger- of the area of German concentration man and 404 native soldiers in the was at Mahenge, which lies about Arusha district, 40 miles west of Kili- midway between the north end of manjaro. On May 25 General Nor- Lake Nyasa and Dar-es-Salaam. At they advanced from Rhodesia north- the close of the year the Germans east between Lakes Nyasa and Tan- still held approximately one-fourth of ganyika. At about the same time the province, and they were actively forces advanced northward from Por- opposing the advance of a British tuguese East Africa and eastward force from Kilwa, which lies 135 from the Belgian Congo, and General | miles south of Dar-es-Salaam.

V. THE NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION

THE PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT

President.-Woodrow Wilson, Democrat, of New Jersey, inaugurated twenty-eighth President of the United States on March 4, 1913, was elected on Nov. 7, 1916, for a second term of four years beginning March 4, 1917.

Secretary to the President.-Joseph Patrick Tumulty, of New Jersey. The General Deficiency Appropriation re-Act continues the salary of the Secretary to the President at $7,500 per year, to which it was raised from the statutory amount of $6,000 in 1911 at the request of President Taft.

The President and Vice-President are elected for terms of four years by the state electoral colleges, whose membership is based on the Congressional apportionment. This appor tionment is revised after each decennial census, as shown in the table in the YEAR BOOK for 1912 (p. 159). The official figures of the popular and electoral votes in the Presidential elections of 1908, 1912, and 1916 are given in the table on pages 170-1. The salary of the President is $75,000, with an allowance of $25,000 for traveling expenses.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS

Ten Cabinet officers, constituting the President's advisory council, each in charge of one of the great Departments of the Government, are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, for a term subject to the President's pleasure. The salary of the Cabinet officers is $12,000 each. With the exception of the Secretary of State (appointed 1915), the Attorney-General (appointed 1914), and

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

the Secretary of War (appointed 1916), the members of the present Cabinet were nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate on March 5, 1913. By Act of Congress, in the case of vacancy in office of President through the death or removal of both President and VicePresident, the Cabinet officers succeed to the Presidency in the order indicated below.

Secretary, was confirmed on Jan. 24,
1917, succeeding John E. Osborne, re-
Second Assistant Secretary.-Alvey A.
Adee, D. C. $4,500.

Secretary of State.-Robert Lan- signed Dec. 9. sing, N. Y.

Charged with negotiations relating to foreign affairs.

Counselor.-Frank Lyon Polk, N. Y.

$7,500.

Assistant Secretary.-William Phillips, Mass. $5,000.

Mr. Phillips, formerly Third Assistant

Third Assistant Secretary.-Breckinridge Long, Mo. $4,500.

Mr. Long, a lawyer of St. Louis, was confirmed on Jan. 24, 1917, succeeding William Phillips, appointed Assistant Secretary.

Director of the Consular Service.Wilbur J. Carr, N. Y. $4,500.