HEAVY ARTILLERY FIGHTING

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 57, 23 February 1918, Page 5

HEAVY ARTILLERY FIGHTING

AUSTRALIANS CAPTURE JERICHO GERMAN PROGRESS IN RUSSIA The Australian Forces have captured Jericho, 15 miles north-eastward of Jerusalem, on the right flank of the British advance. Heavy artillery fighting is reported from along the French front, one report indicating a general action on the whole line held by the French, while another, an official communique, states that the principal actions are being fought on the hills west of Rheims and in the Champagne. Raids and big-gun actions are also reported from the British line. Sir Douglas Haig's forces have taken over another dozen miles from the French, and are now holding the whole of the St. Quentin salient as far south as La Fere. Another turn of the Russian kaleidoscope again reverses Russian policy, it being asserted that the Bolsheviks have issued a proclamation ordering resistance to the invasion. But effective resistance is impossible, according to advices from Petrograd, which show that the big guns are useless owing to essential parts having been stolen by German agents during the early stages of the revolution. The hope is expressed that famine and pestilence will keep the soil free from the invader till the Allies crush the Germans in the West, but the enemy is sending very small forces indeed on its march of invasion, and they will be able to transport all the supplies they are unable to commandeer. The capture of Minsk is announced, while the Russians have also evacuated Reval and Pskoff. It is believed that the Germans will demand the whole of the Baltic provinces and will also stipulate for tho handing over of the Baltic fleet.