March 24—Five hundred thousand troops are massed in Southern Tyrol and the Trentino; many villages near the Italian frontier have been evacuated and many houses destroyed by dynamite, so as to afford better range for the big guns.
March 26—Army contract frauds are discovered in Hungary; rich manufacturers jailed.
BELGIUM.
March 2—Gen. von Bissing, German Governor General, says the tax recently ordered imposed on Belgians who do not return to their homes was suggested by Belgians themselves.
March 8—Belgian Press Bureau announces that King Albert now has an army of 140,000 men, a larger force than that which began the war.
March 9—As a result of new royal decrees calling refugee youths to the colors the number of recruits is increasing daily; a few days ago King Albert presented a number of recruits to two veteran regiments in a speech; Belgian officials are arrested by Germans on charge that they induced Belgian customs officials to go through Holland to join Belgian Army.
March 17—Government issues protest against the German allegation that documents found in Brussels show that Belgium and England had a secret understanding before the war of such a nature as to constitute a violation of Belgium's neutrality; the Government declares that conversations which took place between Belgian and British military officers in 1906 and 1912 had reference only to the situation that would be created if Belgium's neutrality had already been violated by a third party; it is declared that the documents found by Germans, "provided no part of them is either garbled or suppressed," will prove the innocent nature of negotiations between Belgium and England.
March 18—Firm of Henri Leten is fined $5,000 for violating order of German Governor General prohibiting payments to creditors in England.
March 20—One million pigs owned by Germans are billeted on the civilian population of Belgium, the Belgians being required to feed and care for the animals.
March 21—Germans are relaxing iron regulations to some extent in attempt to get the normal life of Belgium moving again.