April 7--Field Marshal von der Goltz, in an interview in Vienna, says that Turkey is well prepared for war; she has 1,250,000 well-trained men and several hundred thousand reserves; the Sultan gives an interview at Constantinople to American newspaper men; he deplores "unjust" attack of Allies on the Dardanelles, adding that he does not believe the strait can be forced. April 15--Pillage and murder are reported to be rife in villages and smaller towns of the littoral near Smyrna; lives of Christians are in danger. 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.