GREATEST BATTLE OF WAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13546, 25 November 1914, Page 3

GREATEST BATTLE OF WAR.

GERMANS DESPERATE ATTEMPTS TO BREAK THROUGH. CONFIDENCeTiN FRANCE. LONDON, Oct. 24. The greatest battle of the war is now being fought between the sea and Lille. The Germans' attack is desperate, because this is their last chance to hack a way through to Calais and the southern shore of the Straits of Dover. Masses of reinforcements, including the Landw&hr, many of them mere boys, have been brought up m an effort to force th» British back. It is felt the crisis m the fighting which will be reached within the next few days wall be fateful beyond imagination, but full confidence is placed dn the steadiness and resolution of the Allies with the belief that the Germans will no more take Calais than they have taken Paris or Warsaw. The limes says : "We look to find them m retreat when they have shot .their bolt." A sure sign of French confidence is the expectation that President Poincare . and the French Government will soon return to Paris from Bordeaux. A Paris letter, appearing m the Globe, says:— { "Paris begins to amuse itself, and the indications are that the worst of the , strain is over. New rules enable the - people- to move about more freely m districts lately the scene of fighting. The whole department of the Seine at Oise is now practioally open to motor cars and motor cycles. This is an open de- j claration that there is no possibility ] of any forward rush by the Germans. \ "Again, General Gallieni has made 1 quite a name for himself by his bold ' conduct as military governor of Paris. He refused to listen to the suggestion that the city be regarded as an open j town, and handed over to the Germans had they beaten the Allies, accompanied i by several milliew ef francs m cask to i

purchase immtmity from plunder. That was the proposal of M. Caillaux. It will cost nini his political existence." The Empress Eugenic is occupying! herself at her English Farborough home entertaining convalescent British officers. The beautiful Tuileries gardens m Paris, where she reigned as Empress, now ring with shouts of laughter from football-playing English St. John ambulance men.