June 5—There are now 900,000 prisoners of war held in Germany, in 247 prison camps.
June 7—An extensive exodus of Americans from Germany is in progress, many going to Italy; refugees declare the Germans now hate Americans as bitterly as they do the British.
June 14—Germany discontinues her exceptional treatment of 39 British officers, put into effect as reprisal for England's exceptional treatment of German submarine crews, now ended.
GREAT BRITAIN.
May 2—Lord Kitchener is becoming the storm centre of the Cabinet upheaval; attacks on him by the Northcliffe newspapers are resented by other newspapers and by many of the public; a "White Paper," containing reports from firms and officers throughout the country, shows that drink is having a serious effect on repairs to warships and transports and on the output of munitions.
May 4—Since the beginning of the war the British Army has had 2,246 officers killed, 4,177 wounded and 762 missing; Chancellor Lloyd George, in a budget speech in Parliament, places the expenditure for the next six months at $10,500,000 a day.
May 7—Government abandons the plan to place extra taxes on spirits and instead substitutes a complete prohibition of the sale of spirits less than three years old.
May 12—The Committee on Alleged German Atrocities, headed by Viscount Bryce, appointed by Premier Asquith, makes public its report, which contains an account of hundreds of cases investigated; the report finds that there were in many parts of Belgium "systematically organized massacres of the civil population"; that in the general conduct of the war innocent civilians, men and women "were murdered in large number, women violated, and children murdered"; that "looting, house burning, and the wanton destruction of property were ordered" by German officers; that "the rules and usages of war were frequently broken," civilians, including women and children, being used as a shield for troops, and that the Red Cross and white flag were frequently abused.
May 13—Premier Asquith announces in the house of Commons the new policy of the Government with reference to alien enemies now resident in Great Britain; those of military age will be interned, while those not of military age, and women and children will be deported; King George orders the names of the German and Austrian Emperors, and of five German Kings and Princes stricken from the rolls of the Order of the Garter.
May 18—Premier Asquith is forming a "National Cabinet," or coalition government, in which some of the Cabinet posts at present occupied by Liberals will go to Unionist and Labor Party leaders; the crisis is the result of the resignation of Lord Fisher as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, due to differences between him and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty; Churchill has been much criticised, particularly for the fiasco at Antwerp and the policy pursued in the Dardanelles, while the loss of the Lusitania has further stirred his opponents.