GERMANS FEAR INVASION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15721, 23 September 1914, Page 7

GERMANS FEAR INVASION

FORTIFYING IN LORRAINE. VIOLENT COMBATS IN FRANCE. ALLIES STILL ADVANCING. MORE AUSTRIAN REVERSES. i ■ HELP FROM GERMAN TROOPS

The German invaders of Belgium and France, who a month

ago were confident of a triumphal entry into Paris, are now devoting some of their energy to fortifying themselves on the German side of the frontier, to check a possible invasion from France. Elsewhere the allies continue to make progress. Violent combats, ending in bayonet charges, are reported near Laon. Here, and at all other points, the German attacks were repulsed. An account of the fighting at Soissons on Thursday and Friday shows that the British fought heroically under excessively trying conditions caused by the cold and wet. The Daily Mail's correspondent gives a graphic description of the destruction of Rheims, which was left a mass of ruins. He states that the Germans made the cathedral a deliberate mark. The Austrian;;; in Bosnia have suffered severely at tie hands of Servians and Montenegrins. They have abandoned supplies and a field hospital. The Montenegrins are advance ing on Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia.

The rout of the Austrian Army has necessitated the con* centration of three German army corps near Przemysl, in Galicia, to defend the fortress against the Russian attack,, A fight between the rival artillery forces has commenced.

A Stockholm report states that a number of Russian war* ships have reached Finland in a damaged condition. It is in= ferred that they have been engaged with the German fleet in the Baltic Sea. Another cablegram says the Russian fleet in the Baltic, aided by mines, is considered competent to frustrate any attempt by the German Navy to bombard Finnish ports or Revel.