JEN THOUSAND PRISONERS

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 247, 16 October 1918, Page 5

JEN THOUSAND PRISONERS

ALLIES TAKE DURAZZO

HINDENBURG BEHIND PEACE OFFER

The Allied advance in Belgium has reached a depth of seven miles, and has brought in 10,000 prisoners. The important town of Thourout, within ten miles of Bruges, has been captured, and over a dozen villages have been liberated from the enemy, whose attempts to withstand the Allied advance have been of a feebla character. British naval forces co-operated off the Belgian coast, and it is reported that a monitor entered Ostend Harbour. South of the Lvs slight progress has been made in local fighting, but there has been no advance of a general character.

The French continue to make steady and solid progress in the Champagne, and they have driven the enemy back and across the Aisne at a number of points north-eastward of Eheims.

It is officially announced that it was Hindenburg, and not Prince Maximilian, who pressed the German Government to demand an armistice from President Wilson. The President's refusal to consider the matter while German atrocities continue, and without very adequate safeguards, has given general satisfaction.

British and Italian forces have captured the Austrian naval base at Durazzo, on the Albanian coast, which will give them a fine harbour for their future operations in Albania. The enemy retirement in the Balkans continues at speed, and the Allies are sweeping up large captures of guns and useful war material.