THE ALLIED POSITION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 283, 30 November 1915, Page 5

THE ALLIED POSITION.

BULGARIAN ATTACK ON THE~

FRENCIL

A COSTLY ATTEMPT

(Rewired Nor. 29, 5.40 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 29. Mr. Ward Price; telegraphing from Salonika, says: "The British are now in the fir,st line base, and face the enemy in a country,-as different from

the pollards of Belgium and the slagliea,ps of Lens as the ■potteries district in England.is from the Highlands of Scotland. The: French early in -November, after a stiff encounter, •drove the enemy up a ravine across &, valley to the northward, and were making a good position along the crest above the.village, when, on the night of the J~X§th^ the; Bulgars attacked with: considerable "^energy— creeping down, the 'gullies:.;on their side of the valley and noiselessly scaling the steep slopes opposite-with their feet shod in leather moccasins. The French trenches were of an elementary character, the rocky soil snaking digging almost impossible. They had no entanglements, in front of the position. "Three hundred dead Bulgars were lying under the crest next. morning. They. had. been killed with the bayonet - vrhen trying to rush the low- -parapet. The valleys are strewn with yellow, raaize, which the peasantry has been forced to. leave to lot. Partridges, flares and woodcock abound. "You need to see the British in this unfamiliar setting to realise why we jtre a great colonising race. Neither the grandeur of the scenery nor the rombre history of the country dis- - tracts' them from setting about their * matter-of-fact military duties". They already have well-beaten paths on the liillsides, wher© the inhabitants never before troubled to make a- track. From the railhead we-have the best road in Macedonia as a line of^ supply. Men from GaUipoli, who, Avere troubled with heat and flies, find an almost unbelievable contrast. Until now the 10,000 Bulgars who are facing us have been satisfied to leave us alone. They apparently hold a {scattered line of trenches, blockhouses, and hangars along the ridges parallel to ours. Their patrols occasionally meet ours in the valley at night-time. The enemy are frequently seizirig an. opportunity to surrender owing to the shortness of food."