BEATEN OFF BY BELGIANS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15684, 11 August 1914, Page 7

BEATEN OFF BY BELGIANS

LIEGE UNCONQUERED FRENCH WORK OF REVENGE.

A SUCCESS IN ALSACE.

CONFIDENCE IN GREAT BRITAIN

IMPROVED FINANCIAL TONE.

Despite a German claim that the City of Liege has fallen, circumstantial accounts continue to be received of the stubborn defence offered by the town to the German advance.

During Saturday night the entire Seventh Army Corps made a tremendous attack upon the city, but were beaten off by the Belgians, who manfully held their positions.

A daring counterattack by a mixed Belgian force resulted in the Germans breaking and fleeing. A band 5000 strong was received in the Dutch town of Maastricht. The men were fed, and allowed to recross into German territory.

The French have commenced active reprisals upon the Germans on the Alsatian border. They crossed the frontier, and attacked Altkirch, a town defended by an equal number of Germans. The French took the breastworks after a fierce bayonet fight and their cavalry inflicted severe loss upon the retreating Germans.

Advancing further, the French division seized the town of Mulhausen without opposition.

A report from Copenhagen says that 14 German warships passed through the Great Belt into the Baltic and sailed north' wards to the Gulf of Finland.

The British Admiralty reports that German submarines had attacked a British squadron. None of the British ships were injured, while one German submarine was sunk.

Several messages are to hand indicating not only complete faith in the military and naval resources of the Empire, but also increased confidence in commercial circles.

The lowering of the London bank rate to 5 per cent, and the war insurance rate to four guineas per cent, is very significant. When the London bank rate was 10 per cent., a figure reached on the Ist inst., Mr. Lloyd George ventured the hope it might be reduced to 6 per cent., but events have proved him not sufficiently optimistic. The reports that the Atlantic routes are safe, and the intimation given by the Admiralty to Tyneside shipowners that they 'may send their vessels anywhere in the North Sea, indicate complete confidence in the naval position.