BELVILLE WOOD

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 762, 20 July 1916, Page 7

BELVILLE WOOD

FIERCE COUNTER-ATTACK GERMANS WIN BACK SOME GROUND INTERNAL CONDITIONS OF GERMANY NEW RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE STEADILY DEVELOPING AFRICAN CAMPAIGN PROCEEDS SUCCESSFULLY The most important news to-day is the announcement of the recapture by the Germans of a portion of Belville Wood and part of Longueval. The German attacks were delivered in dense masses, and heavy losses were sustained by them. A small French party made a clever capture of Biaches fort, a handful of men taking• a difficult position. An interesting summary is given of internal conditions in Germany. Communal feeding is now an established institution. General Smuts is meeting with successes in his African campaign. A big Russian offensive is developing, and it is stated that von Hindenburg is to organise for a defensive campaign. The Kaiser, in a sermon to field chaplains, urges the necessity of ‘ ‘ practical Christianity. ” FIERCE GERMAN ATTACK PORTION OF BELVILLE WOOD CAPTURED. ASSAULT DELIVERED IN DENSE MASSES. The High Commissioner .reports LONDON, July 18 (3.45 p.m.). General Haig reports that an enemy attack was directed during the night against our new positions cast of Bazeutiu village. | Very large German reinforcements were collected for the attack after intense artillery fire. The first assault was delivered in dense masses at 5.30 p.m. The fighting continued particularly violent at Belville Wood throughout the night. After suffering very heavy losses the enemy succeeded in recapturing a portion of Belville Wood, and also obtained a footing in the northern outskirts of Longueval. Elsewhere the attack, including three separate assaults on Waterloo! Farm, completely broke down under our fire. From the rest of the front the news is unimportant. A CLEVER RUSE. CAPTURE OF BIACHES FORT. j I DARING FEAT BY SMALL FRENCH PARTY. By Cable. — Press Association.—Copyright. \ Australian and IS 1 ./.. Cable Association. (Received duly 20, 11.20 a.m.) PARIS, July 19. | A lucky French ruse captured Biaches Fort on duly 9. It was so well concealed and protected that the bombardment failed to destroy the works. A German company held out for 24 hours. Thou a sub-lieutenant and eight men found a vulnerable spot and entered the fort unseen. The officer and a man rushed forward, throwing grenades and shouting: ‘‘Charge with bayonets!’’ I Then 123 Germans came out of the shelter without resisting. Six | other Frenchmen sprang forward with great fury, and utterly I deceived the enemy, who flung down their arms. Biaehes Fort | ;was captured without the loss of a Frenchman.

THE AFRICAN CAMPAIGN GENERAL SMUTS ACHIEVES FURTHER SUCCESSES. GERMAN FORCES IN RETREAT. The High Commissioner reports:— LONDON, July 19 (2.15 p.m.). General Smuts, on July 18, reports that the enemy forces which endeavoured to operate against our communications northwards of Handeni and the Csambara railway have now beeu driven down the Pangani River, abandoning a Held gun. The clearance of this area is progressing satisfactorily. On the southern shore of Lake, Victoria a force under Brigadier Sir C. Crewe disembarked at Muanza on the night of Friday. The enemy evacuated the town after a slight resistance, leaving rifles, a portion of the supply column, and a Konigsberg gun. The majority of the (}cri>*an Europeans embarked on a steamship and fled southwards by Stuhlmann Sound, pursued by armed lake vessels.

.1 GERMANY'S INTERNAL CONDITION. PUBLIC KEPT IN IGNORANCE OF SITUATION DESCRIPTION OF COMMUNAL FOOD SUPPLY. Australian and N.Z. Colic Association. (Received July 20, 11.20 a.m.) AMSTERDAM, July 19. Conflicting accounts are given of the internal conditions of Germany, Though the fear of defeat is growing, the authorities are making an intense effort to prevent the public understanding the significance of the Somme offensive. The public arc hypnotised by means of lying messages from newspapers in neutral countries, which are in German pay. There is. a general impression among politicians that Prince Bulow is about to supersede von Bethmann-llollweg as Chancellor. ■ The food problem continues acute. Herr Batocki (Director of Food Supply) failed to persuade the southern States to permit the exportation of foods in order to secure an equal distribution. The Prussian authorities strongly resent the action of the southerners. Owing to the failure of the kitchens on wheels, the problem of communal feeding in Berlin is being solved by huge public dining halls. The first kitchen has 63 boilers, holding 30,000 litres of food. Hundreds of women are employed preparing meals, using electrical potato cutting machines, gas stoves, and other labour-saving appliances. Specially constructed motor cars carry the food to the distribution depots. The following is the week's bill of fare:—Monday: Rice and potatoes. Tuesday: Meat. Wednesday: Beaus and fat, Thursday; Meat and macaroni, Friday: Beans and potatoes. Saturday: Cabbages and potatoes. Sunday: Minced meat and potatoes. A portion equal to a litre is sold for fourpcnce, and 250,000 litres are sold daily in Berlin. The better class of people are willing to rub shoulders with the humblest in the common dining halls. Herr von Batocki, the Kaiser 's new ‘' food dictator '’ (who, by the way, objects to the phrase ‘‘food dictatorship”) lias, according to a Router wire through Amsterdam, warned the Reichstag not to expect any sudden change or improvement of conditions, says the “Chronicle” under date May 27. He said that of special importance was the close co-operation of the new board with the authorities of the Federal States, the arniv and the civil administration. “Great difficulties,” he added, “are arising out of the relations of the Federal States. From Wurteinherg menacing letters have reached me, protesting against the sucking dry of Wnrtemberg by' Prussia. Without the ready' co-operation of the authorities of the Federal States, their organisations, and the entire population, my work cannot lie successful.” In his speech before the Budget Committee of the Reichstag, Herr von Batocki said: —“The army must first be provided for, and only' then can the civil population be considered. It should not be forgotten that the bad harvest of 1!)1 4 and the stilt worse one of last year were the cause of the situation which yve deplore to-day.”

| Note. —It should not be forgotten in this country, that up to a few weeks ago we were officially assure.) in German publications that the cereal harvest in the Central Empires was a j;ood average one and that the potato crop was one of extreme abundance. One of two inferences is clear: that the Government desired to lull the people into a false idea of plenty, or that th statistical departments muddled the whole affair. Perhaps both.] This plaint from Wurtemborg (writes a "Daily Chronicle" correspondent) only expresses in drastic fashion what all the other German Ktates feel with regard to Prussia. In the Bavarian Diet the other .lay members complained of "Prussian food egotism," and of the attempts'which the Berlin Government were making to induce Bavarian food growers to send their stuff to Berlin. In Saxony the same feeling prevails, and it is clear that lien- von Bat.oeki's main difficulty will be to persuade the Bavarian the Hessian, the Badenser, and the others that their main duty now is to feed Prussia. It will not be an easy task. The same disinclination is shown in towns to consent to any policy calculated to deprive them of their available food supplies, and the disinclination is all the greater where the suspicion arises that the supplies are intended for Berlin. If there is one city more than another which the average German of the South and West loathes it is Berlin; and the prospect of depleting the stores of his own town in order that Berlin may escape starvation is not attractive. In Eisenach, for example, the town council have issued an order forbidding the exportation from the district of the following foodstuffs: All kinds of meat sausage, poultry, fish, fats and oils, groceries, soap and soap powders cheese' eggs, baked wares, tarts, fruit-cakes, and vegetables. The "Berliner Tageblatt," with some pertinence, comments on this as follows:—"People speak of England's starvation war against us, but this German starvation war against the large towns is at least as worthy of condemnation."

THE GREAT RUSSIAN ADVANCE

General Hrussiloff's latest thrust in Yolhynia has brought Lemberg considerably nearer. On the eastern left wing General Lechitsky's cavalry has penetrated into Hungary.

AUSTRIAN MALEVOLENCE. INDIGNITIES PERPETRATED ON A FALLEN FOE. DEMAND POE REPRISALS IN ITALY. “The Time*’' Service. (Received July 20. 9 a.m.) ROME, July 19. Signor Battisti, Deputy for Trent in the Austrian Parliament, was seriously wounded while fighting as an Italian officer, lie committed suicide rather than fall into Austrian hands. The Austrians held a mock treason trial over his body, and hanged it. Furious indignation and a demand for reprisals are general throughout. Italy. THE KAISER’S SERMON. “WE NEED PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.” BLASPHEMY OF THE SUPER-HUN, “The Timex” Service. (Received July 2C, 0 a.m.) LONDON, July 19. A correspondent at Amsterdam reports that the Kaiser, in a sermon to field chaplains, said : “We must show a stern front in this time of trial and world war, separating the corn from the chaff. We need practical Christianity. If the Lord walked into this room, do you think we could look Him in the face?. You must show us the personality of the Lord, who is now assuredly walking through the world, perhaps to judgment. ’’ FORTRESSES IN GRAVEYARDS. GERMAN CALLOUSNESS AND SACRILEGE. CEMETERY CONVERTED INTO POWERFUL DEFENCE. United Service. (Received duly 20, 9 a.m.) LONDON, July 19. Air Warner Allen, who is with the French on the Somme, describes the sacrilege perpetrated by the Germans. Them fortresses at Curln were built in grave yards. They emptied the graves and vaults, using them as dug-outs. They destroyed and flung out coffins and corpses, and uprooted the head stones and railings for barricades. They linked up the whole with subterranean passages, forming elaborate defence works, full of concealed shelters and machine guns, where the Germans, when driven from the village, finally took refuge, compelling the French to concentrate their artillery, laying the church in ruins before the place was conquered.