Battle Continues

Southland Times, Issue 17763, 23 September 1914, Page 5

Battle Continues

On the Banks of the Aisne GREATEST STRUGGLE IN HISTORY Allies Slowly Gain Ground A TERRIBLE CONFLICT Desperate Bayonet Charges SUPERB WORK BY THE BRITISH Taking “ Impregnable” Trenches Superiority to the Germans A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT Country Deluged With Rain The Destruction of Rheims Wrath of the Populace INDIGNATION IN ITALY jCBy Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright); . PARIS, September 21 (morning). Received September 22, 11.5 p.m. Official: Ou the left wing on the right bank of the River Oise the Allies have advanced to the heights of Lassingly. On the cast of the Oise and north of the Aisne the Germans hare manifested renewed activity. Violent combats ending in bayonet charges hare ensued in the region of Craonnc. Everywhere the enemy had been repulsed. Around Rheims the Germans hare not attempted infantry attacks, but have limited themselves to cannonading onr front with heavy artillery. In the Champagne province and on the western slope of the Forest of Argonne, beyond Somain, the Allies have taken lies nil and Woevrc. The enemy continues to hold Thiancourt, which was cannonaded, and Hassan-Chatel. There is no new report from the Lorraine Vosges. The Germans are fortifying themselves on the Dclmc side and to the south of Cbateau-Salins.

THE PATAL VALLEY. DESCRIPTION OP AISNE BATTLEGROUND. ALLIES ADVANCE POOT BY POOT. GERMAN DEPEAT RUMOURED. LONDON'. Sept. 21. Late on Thursday the Valley of the Aisnc presented a terrible spectacle. The ground was strewn with dead men and dead horses. In inextricable confusion lay broken machine guns, foundered cannon, and scattered accoutrements. The battle was nearly a week old. The Allies advanced foot by foot. Shot and shell poured on them like an avalanche. yet they forced the Germans back towards Novell. ‘‘They are terrible fellows, tint! we nave seen nothing like it. was a .French - man’K comments on the doggedness of the British fighting on the slopes above SoLssons. The British fought lit open order; each man. in a little dug-out, creeping and digging as he went. The Germans wore pouring shells upon them, but their resistance took the spirit out of the enemy. There was a furious battle east of Pcronne, between Koissel and St. Quentin. where the French wing was endeavouring to cut off the enemy’s retreat towards Belgium. It is rumoured at Amiens that the Germans are beaten, and that their ai - tiilery lire is slackening as their ammunition is giving out. FRENCH OPPICIAL STATEMENT, ALLIES’ ATTACK PROGRESSES. TCATTT HINDERS movements. PARIS. Sept. 21. An official statement says:—"Our left wing below Soissons was vigorously attacked hv a superior force, and gave ground which was almost immediately reconquered. On the right bank of the Oise we have continued to make progress to the northward of Rheims, repulsing all attacks. In the centre, eastward of Rheims. our attacks have further progressed. In the Argonne district the situation is unchanged. In that of Vvocvro rains rendered the movement, of troops very difficult. The Germans blew up a railway bridge near Staples. When the Germans captured Lunevillc. on August 21, they lost 11.000. They lost 20,000 at Nancy on .September r, and 7. NEWS OP GERMAN REVERSE. FILTERS THROUGH TO GERMANY. ANTWERP. Sept. 21. yews of the German reversal in France has filtered through to Germany, but not to Brussels, where the military Governor threatens to shoot all found in possession of English or Belgian newspapers. Only German newspapers or Dutch ones which are pronounced!.! pro-German, are authorised. THE GERMAN RIGHT WING. RETIRING TOWARDS BELGIAN FRONTIER. GENEVA. Sept. 21. It is reported from Basle that the Gorman right wing is slowly retiring m good order towards the Belgian frontier. THE DESTRUCTION OP RTHETMH. AMSTERDAM, Sept. 21. A German official communique says:— “The French at Rheims compelled us to reply to their fire. We regret that the city was damaged. Orders were issued to spare the Cathedral as much as posSible- NEW YORK, Sept. 21. Advices from Bordeaux state that Rheims Is a. mass of ruins. Colleges and public buildings, in addition to the cathedral. have been destroyed.

THE EASTERN THEATRE. AUSTRIAN ARMIES REPULSED. RUSSIAN FLEET IN THE BALTIC. WHAT THE BEAR WANTS FOR PEACE. PRTROGRAD. Sept. 21. Three Gorman army corps have boon concentrated upon a fortified position in The vicinity of Przemysl, and have been given orders to defend the town to the uttermost, so as to enable a German force which is gathering at Posen to ~n ange a general forward movement. It is officially stated that the Austrians endeavoured to arrest the advance of General Baranoff on the Raliishoff front, and were repulsed with great loss. The Russian siege guns bombarded Grostav, and a tight with artillery has commenced at Prxemysl. The Russian licet in the Baltic, aided by Klines, is considered competent to frustrate, any attempt against the Finnish ports or Revel. During the battle of Lemberg the Austrians, after hoisting the white flag, treacherously shot down General Frolve, the hero of Port Arthur. The infuriated Russians sabred (hem unsparingly. The Petrograd Gazette say that before peace is proclaimed Russia must secure the freedom of Slavs from the foreign yoke, and end this nightmare of German militarism. Tills will involve a dissolution of the Hapsburg monarchy and the abolition of Prussian hegemony. Austria must be deprived of Galicia and ail Slav territory, and she must also cede Trieste and Trent to Italy, as well a.s cede Transylvania and part of Bukovina to Boumania. SUCCESS OP MONTENEGRINS. SERVIAN PRINCE WOUNDED. NISH. Sept. 21. Official: In the course of their retirement upon Visit igrad the Austrians abandoned a, large quantity of provisions, materials for field hospitals anil forty railway waggons. Tin* .Montenegrins have captured the fortress of Epocha. and the entrenched camps of Gweazda and .lahuka. They are now only fifteen kilometres from Scra.ie vo. Prince George of Scrvia has been wounded. SLAV GENERAL SHOT. ACCUSED OP SPYING. ROME. Sept. 21, A telegram from Vienna states that (he Austrians court-martlled and shot General Vodinnyski. who was of Slav origin. Re was accused of spying. They a.lso shot the Slav slationmasler at Lemberg. it is reported that General Frofieh, who wagi removed from the command of (lie cavalry division which was nearly annihilated has committed suicide. “EVE OP BIG EVENTS.” NAVAL MOVEMENTS IMPENDING. (Times and Sydney Sun Service). LONDON. Sept. 21. Petrograd papers predict that the main German fieet will enter ilie Baltic and operate against the Russian fleet at Kronstadt. The Viestnik Mody says; “We are on the eve of great events.” We shall see the German fleet hastening from one seat to another under the blow of the English fieet and the resistance of our own.” The Russians state that the German system of utilising aircraft consists of sending aeroplanes up to photograph and. map out enemy’s positions. Zeppelins follow and bombs are dropped where the most damage is indictable. WHEAT SCARE IN GERMANY. RQME. Sept. 21. Wheat i<= said to be increasingly scarce in Germany.

STILL POSSIBLE. • ‘rms srEQE of Antwerp. y ANTWERP, Sept. 2 1. The possibility of this city being besieged still looms. The Germans are bringing up siege guns with a range of 17 miles. Antwerp is provisioned for a year, and 3000 American cattle have been arriving' weekly for six weeks. “KEUOBZES OF KAISER'S COURT.” (Times and Sydney Sun Service). LONDON, Sopl, ”1. ‘'Memories of Kaiser’s Court,” written by a lady employed in the Court, and published by Mcthvcns, says:—"The Kaiser likes to identified with successful people of every class. He believes himself to be very astute, and is blinded by his own brilliancy. Ho has only one point of view—his own. Possessing a marvellous memory for facts, he deduces hasty inferences and relies entirely on his own personal desires and experiences. The Crown Prince has a facile, democratic and easy generosity, which wins him popularity. He is very young for ills age, self-confident, and rather selfish. There is a good deal of the schoolboy about him still, although since his marriage, he has given up hla favourite pastime of sliding down the staircase bannisters." GENERAL WAR NOTES. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 21. Mr Lloyd George is heading a movement to raise a complete AVclsh army corps. ' Port-au-Spain colony is giving £40.000 worth of cocoa in addition to subscriptions already totalling £40,000. A German airman, mistaking German guns at Nois dc Casturan for British, dropped bombs upon them, killing 30 Germans. A British warship captured the German ship Ponapo Rynda.m and released her after the landing of German reservists. The Senate of Cambridge University has offered Louvain University facilities for continuing its work at Cambridge. The Dally Mail states that Baron KuliImaim. recently councillor to the German Embassy in London, is conducting a Swedish press campaign at Stockholm, where he has published accounts of British disasters, including a revolt in I ndia. A J'Tcnchman. formerly a student, at Oxford, writes to an Fnglisb friend that when the Gormans abandon villages they desfroy everything, killing all the cattle or cutting off their feet, OnPENHAGEN. Sept. 21. The Berliner Tagehlatt says that the German policy in North Schleswig has hitherto been a groat mistake. The new Governor, von Moltke, is expected to sock the conciliation of the two nationaJitics. OSTKND, Sept. 21. In connection with the collisions between Prussians and Bavarians, reported from Brussels, it is stated that the Bavarians permitted six train loads of Prench prisoners at Maubeuge to escape. Widespread insubordination exists among the Bavarians. THE HAGUE, Sept. 21. A telegram from Berlin states hint Uie Kaiser’s son, August Wilhelm, was wounded in the left arm, and that the Kaiser has decorated him. PARIS, September 21. The party who, in a German motor, and in the uniforms of Prench prisoners, were caught attempting to blow up a railway bridge and thus sever communication with Dieppe and Havre, have been courtmartialled and ordered to be shot. ITALY THREATENED. AUSTRIAN TROOPS ON HER FRONTIER. ITALIANS ARRESTED AT TRIESTE. VENICE. Sept. 20. Two hundred thousand Austrian troops have concentrated on the Kalian fro nt ie r. Hundreds of Kalians at Trieste, wrongly denounced as snies. were arrested and their houses were searched. MONTREAL PATRIOTIC FUND. OTTAWA, Sept. 21. The Montreal patriotic fund has been closed. A million and a half dollars were collected in five days. SEXE.MISHXETG IN SOUTH AFEICA. CAPETOWN, Sept . 21. German patrols were seen thiv’y miles from Kakamas. 'the Germans have destroyed the wells within thirty miles of the frontier, rendering an attack from Gordonia difficult. NOTES FROM STDNEY - . SYDNKY. Sept. 22. ■Replying to Mr Holman’s cable, enquiring whether there was any foundation for the report that Germany was endeavouring to make separate peace with Belgium, the Hon. T. A. Coghlan cables that nothing is known of the matter at the Foreign Office or the Belgian Fmbassy. The rumour is believed to have emanated from a French source. The Kelgian Fmbassy staf es that Belgium would not consider peace overtures without consulting the Allies. Consignees of goods in the enemy s ships in Commonwealth ports are requested to send full particulars to the Crown Solicitor, Sydney. M. Delcasse (French Foreign "Minister). has cabled to the French Consul protesting against German vandalism and the destruction of Tthoims' Cathedral. thus robbing humanity of an incomparable portion of its artistic inheritance . 1 ■