FRENCH SUCCESSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 33

FRENCH SUCCESSES.

TWO-THIRDS OF THE LABYRINTH HELD. PARIS, June 7. Official: We have achieved further gains eastward of the Aix-Noulette-Souchez road and at Neuville and the Labyrinth. We now hold two-thirds of the last-named. We captured eastward of Tracy-le-Mont, on the Aisne, in a single rush two lines of trenches and several works. We also repulsed three violent counter-attacks, taking 200 prisoners and capturing three 77-millimetre guns. A communique states: On the night of June 5 the Germans made a violent effort to retake the positions they had recently ]o t. There was a continuous bombardment on the Ablain-Neuville sector, especially of the sugar refinery at Souchez. We replied energetically. The Germans made five counter-attacks on the slopes ead of Chapelle de Lorette, also incessant counter-attacks on a wood east of the Aix-Noulette-Souchez road. The German offensive is completely broken. The French maintained all their positions, inflicting heavy losses, and took several trenches and 30 prisoners.

SUFFERS MGS OF GASPOSSOMEO MEM. LONDON, June 7. Major-general Stuart Wortley, com* mantling a British corps in France, describes the horrors resulting from the use of gas at Yores. He says: “ The public cannot have the slightest \ idea of the last damnable effort on the i part of the Germans to disregard all

the laws- of humanity and civilisation. I have seen our men in the hospitals after being brought from the trenches. Tsiere is no need to inquire the number of their ward; the groaning is sufficient direction. In one ward there were 18 cases, and the men were sitting bolt upright or swaying backwards and forwards, gasping for breath. Their faces, hands, and cheeks were a shiny black colour, and their eyes were glazed. They were absolutely unable to speak or feed themselves. During the two days it takes these men to die they suffer most acute agony. It by the slightest chance they recover, the probability is that they will be useless for the rest of their life, as the effect of the gas turns the tissues of the lungs into liquid. It is the most hopeless, helpless, sickening sight imaginable.”

MANUFACTORIES AT VILVORDE AMSTERDAM, June 7.

The Germans are using the chief factories at Vilvorde to manufacture asphyxiating gases. They are protected by anti-aircraft guns.

DUTY OF THE CHURCH

LONDON, June 6,

The Manchester Guardian asks: Will the Government give the needful push? There is no time to be lost; the time for reason, discussion, and argument has gone by. This is the hour for action. The Church will find here a new and unique opportunity. The Government, it says, w'as reconstructed in consequence of Gulonel Repington’s telegram on the scarcity of high explosives, while the Bishop of Pretoria’s letter brought home the necessity for the mobilisation of the nation. These are the two most import ant events outside the actual battlefield since the war began.

The duty of the Church is now plain. Ministers from their pulpits must drill the people to a clear sense of the part they have to play in the present colossal epic. The Church of England has got to justify the national name it bears. Everyone in her pulpits ought to ring with the call for service.

GERMAN PRODIGALITY OF AMMUNITION.

DUNKIRK, June 7

While the British are building up a reserve of high explosive ammunition, before they attempt another advance, the Germans are pouring an unending stream of metal about our lines. The German sapper's are tireless, boring night and day. Despite the evidence'l>at their infantry is not strong enough to launch an attack in force, it is impossible to exaggerate the importance and strength of the machine guns. The gunners lurk in cellars until the allied advances have swept past and then open lire. They work their guns to the last. This courage of a cornered rat is curious when it is contrasted with the fact that they display no such quality in open fight. The machine gunners are often bolted and barred within cellars, where their only alternative is to sell their life as dearly as possible. This is particularly the case in the lighting round Arras.