TOWARDS RUSSIAN FRONTIER

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7, 8 January 1917, Page 5

TOWARDS RUSSIAN FRONTIER

ENEMY OCCUPIES BRAILA '

SHARP FSOHTINC ROUND VERDUN

ALLIED COUNCIL IN ROME

GREECE CONTEMPLATES DECLARING WAR

Braila, on the left bank of the Danube, to the north-west of the Dobrudja, has fallen into the hands of the Germans and Bulgars, who are now bombarding Galatz. Colonel Feyler, the well-known Swiss critic, predicts a retreat to the Pruth, which marks the border line between Rumania and Russia. He points out that while this means the evacuation of all Moldavia, it also means a further tax on the resources of the enemy, whose lines of communicatidn will be so much the longer and harde* to keep up. Bomb and artillery fighting have livened up the Verdun front, but no progress has been made by either sid-s. The Germans attempted a coup de main, but this entirely failed under the French fire. French aeroplanes raided many districts behind the German line with a good deal of success. Lord Northcliffe has returned from the western front more certain than ever of the victory of the Allies. He found the British full of vim and confidence, while the German prisoners were gloomy and depressed. The health of the troops, has been remarkably good this winter, the proportion of illhealth being as low as three per thousand. Mr. Lloyd George, M. Briand and their advisers have arrived in Rome to confer with the Italian Government on the general situation, and have been very warmly received. The British have constructed a broad-gauge railway from the Suez Canal to El Arish, the last fifteen miles having- been built at the rate of a mile a day.