PLEASE BELIEVE US.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 66, 18 March 1915, Page 8

PLEASE BELIEVE US.

GERMAN' AMAZING PLEA. The Marconi Company, -which daily tape the official statement circulated through the German wireless stations, states that Friday's communique contained at the end this amazing statement: "This is the truth," (eaye the "London Daily Express"). The statements to which the German Government impresses the official mark of "truth" were ac follow:— "The German 'booty taken in the three battles north of Soiseone up to the present amounts to 5200 prisoner?, fourteen cannon, six machine guns, and several revolver guns. "The French suffered heavy losses. Five thousand kiHed Frenchmen were found on the battlefield. Tfeeir' retreat south of the Aisne came within range of our heavy artillery. "A comparison of the , battle here with the result of the battle of IS7O shows that although the importance of the tatties north of Soiseons cannot be compared with that«of .the battle of Auguet 18, 1870, tie width of the battlefield approximately corresponds to that of Gravelotte and St Privat. The French losses of .the 12th-Uth January,. 1915, however, probably surpass .those pf Auguet 18, 1870, by a considerable amount. THIS IS THE TRUTH." ' - The French on Saturday- issued the following reply to' these German assertions: —■ "Norddeich (the German wireless station), the imagination of which had been quiet for some time .past, had in mind to aetoiS&h the world on the subject of the last fighting in .the neighbourhood 'of Soiasons. '0000 French. dead, 5200 prisoners. A victory lively to that' of the 18th August, 1870.' Such is the last invention of JTorddeich. • "Unfortunately for it the. French I troops numbered leas than three brigades, and, therefore, the above figures are, of course, untrue. These ihree brigades were taken on the left'bank of the river, because of the floods and the breaking of the bridges • rendering imI possible the backing of them. They retired without being pursued, and continue to protect Soissons. "That is the exact report of thie local incident. It is ' entirely different from •the battle of 'August 18, 1870, except as far as the German losses are concerned. They are eurely very heavy. The French troops have only retired less than 1800 metres on a front of about five kilometres, and that was the consequence of a flood. The Norddeich bluff cannot change it."