WANING ATTACKS

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 68, 20 March 1916, Page 5

WANING ATTACKS

ON THE VERDUN FRONT

BATTLE GRADUALLY DYING AWAY

THE SUBMARINE PIRACY

BRITAIN TIGHTENS THE BLOCKADE

The enemy attacks at Verdun are waning, and it is believed that, recognising the hopelessness of his effort, he will gradually reduce the strength and frequency of the attacks until normal conditions prevail on the Verdun front. It is estimated that the Germans lost 300,000 men since they began their offensive. At the outset they were assured that Verdun ■would be the last great battle of the war, and they went into the fight full of hope. A different feeling now prevails among - the troops. Another Dutch liner, the Palembang, has been torpedoed, the second in two days. An English naval expert suggests that the Germans are anxious to antagonise Holland, so that they may seize Rotterdam as a "base for their submarine piracy, or in the alternative that they fear Holland's irruption on. the side of the Allies, and seek to forestall it. That the enemy is being rapidly driven to bay is made more evident by a general shriek for a pitiless continuation of the piracy campaign by sinking all British vessels at sight in return for Britain's stringent blockade of the German coast. That blockade is now being made tighter, in order to prevent a repetition of the Moewe episode.