27 MARCH 1915, Page 2

A curious piece of news was received from Petrograd on

Thursday in the form of an official communique, which stated that on Tuesday a German squadron consisting of seven battleships and twenty-eight torpedo-boats cruised off the Courland coast near Polangen and fired on the coast villages, but that at six o'clock they disappeared. It is to be presumed that this somewhat futile demonstration of naval strength was connected with the temporary occupation of Memel by the Russians. That fortress was evacuated by them at the beginning of the week. Since then the news of what has been going on in the north-east corner of Prussia has been very meagre.