AGAINST SENUSSI.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 91, 23 May 1916, Page 1

AGAINST SENUSSI.

AN OLD-FASHIONED CHARGE. A most interesting and significant account of the activity behind tho Ficiio.il lines at Verdun was published on March 11 by Mr H. "Warner Allen-, tie representative of the British press with the French Army, and these are soino of the points of ins message:— All along the roads that lead to Verdun the smell of battle is in the air. There is 110 longer the comparative tranquillity which used to reign .behind the Jines, when French and Germans sitting tight in their own trenches, were trying to wear down the opposing army by a process of exhaustion. Some 20,000 motor lorries a day are passing along these roads. To them must be added guns, caissons, and horse-drawn commissariat carts of every description. Yet everything passes swiftly along, and the roads arc scarcely ever blocked. Motor vans loaded with men trundle along, and it is amazing how -lew breakdowns there are. Every now and then one would fall upon an artillery column bound for the front. Guns of every kind and descrip-tion—evil-looking little 7o's, long, graceful oin guns, and squat, .murder-ous-looking Bin howitzers were to be counted in tens and twenties, and there wero such stocks of ammunition as passed all belief. By the side of a mountain of big shells, piled evenly one above the other, rows of ammunition waggons -wore standing, their honses breathing hard after their journey from the front. Speedily—like clockwork —the waggons were loaded up, and dashed 'back again to provide the gunners with fresh means of destruction. Headquarters in this district are stationed in an unlovely village. Tho roads are deep with mud, and the air, too, is full of it, thanks to the splashing of the motor-care as they pass. Food there is in abundance, but comfort there is none . Every officer under the rank of captain has to sleep on straw, but no 0110 minds. Comfort is replaced bv something far more essential—confidence. A little ripple of satisfaction runs across the bodies of blue-coated men grouped in the street when General Petain with his alert step and a-11-see-nr; eye, passes across the road. Every soldier within .50 miles of Verdun believes in Petain, worships his strategical powers, and iis prepared under his command to achieve the impossible.