IN NORTHERN FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 61, 12 March 1915, Page 5

IN NORTHERN FRANCE.

MILES OF TRENCHES CAPTURED.

SUBMARINE ACTIVITY.

SEVEN SMALL CRAFT SUNK.

GREECE STANDING OUT.

The British, in their advance upon Neuve Chapelle, captured a mile and a-half of German trenches and took a thousand prisoners. The enemy has violently bombarded Nieuport, but has been unable to effect any change in the line of the Allies. Subsequently the Fourth British Army Corps, assisted by a force of Indians, advanced three-quarters of a mUe on a front of 4,000 yards and captured all the intervening hostile positions and trenches, taking 700 prisoners. The Germans fear a British landing on the Belgian coast, and are reinforcing their garrisons and reserve corps.

In the Champagne the fierce counter-attacks of the enemy did not gain them a yard of ground. They admit heavy losses—greater than in the Masurian Lakes battle but seek to cover them up with the assertion that the French lost thrice as many, a fable of the class with which familiarity must ere this have bred contempt in Germany. -

The Russians continue to express satisfaction with the progress of the campaign, and in Petrograd it is asserted that they are in a position to follow up the retreat of the demoralised Germans as soon as the opportune moment arrives. Osowiecz is still under bombardment, but apparently no progress towards the reduction of the fortress has been made.

Lloyds has issued a list of seven small steamers sunk on Wednesday, presumably by German submarines. It is reported that last week a submarine fouled a trawler's nets, turned turtle, and sank, a quantity of oil subsequently coming to the surface.

The new Greek Premier states that a policy of neutrality is essential in order to allow Greece to recuperate after her two successful wars. Germans affect to regard this as a diplomatic triumph for themselves, but it is not unlikely that their triumph will be short-lived.