GERMANS RALLYING TO RESIST ALLIES' ADVANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15717, 18 September 1914, Page 5

GERMANS RALLYING TO RESIST ALLIES' ADVANCE

CROWN PRINCE'S ARMY SUCCEEDS IN RETIRING.

CONFIDENCE RETURNING TO PARIS AND NORTH OF FRANCE.

London, September 16.

There is little news from the front, but the indications point to the fact that a great battle is proceeding, the Germans rallying to resist the rapid advance of the allies. Official statements in to-day's bulletin admit that on some portions of the wide battlefield the Geimans have been partially successful. Fewer refugees are arriving in England, and confidence is returning in Paris and the North of France, where efforts have been bravely commenced to repair the ruin to crops. The industries are being resumed.

Advices from Paris state that the Crown Prince's attempt to retire through the gap between the forest of Argonne and the River Meuse, to the westward of the Verdun forts, has apparently proved successful.

Argonne is a rocky forest-clad plateau, in the north-east of France, extern! ing along the borders of Lorraine and Champagne. It is bounded on the case by the Meuee, and on the west by the Aute and Aisne. The valleys of the Aire and other rivers traverse it longitudinally, a fact to which its importance as a bulwark to north-eastern France is largely due. Verdun is a garrison town in Northern France, between Paris and Met*.