BRITISH STEAMER SUNK WITH LOSS OF LIFE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2293, 29 October 1914, Page 5

BRITISH STEAMER SUNK WITH LOSS OF LIFE

The most arresting item in to-day's budget of news from ill© Franco-Belgian theatre of the war is the blood-tingling account of the dashing charge by the Indian trcops at the battle of La Bassee. At a most critical moment, when an overwhelming mass of the enemy was bearing down upon the British troops who were defending the position, the Indian troops, consisting .of the Bengal Lancers, Sikhs, and Gurkhas, were sent into action, and, with whirling steel arid magnificent dash,, swept all before them. The advance guard of . the Germans was cut to pieces, tho attack was demoralised, the ' enemy turned tail and fled, and the dark-skinned warriors returned to their lines amid cheers of the British soldiers. A dogged, and at times, extremely violent battle, is still raging over the region from Arras, in France, to Nieuport, on the Belgian coast, and at no point along that line have the Allies been forced, to give ground, while progress has been made at certain points. There is no news ' from the Argonne region, the Woeuvre, or Alsace. In the- Eastern theatre, the. Russians, swinging their line hove developed a gTeat battle against the Austro-German Armies operating on the western side of the Vistula River. Evidence is also at hand to confirm 'the recent Petfograd accounts of on important Russian victory at Warsaw. Tho most startling items in the news is the report that General Christian de Wet, tho famous guerrilla leader of the South African War campaigns—latterly State Minister for Agriculture in the Orango River Colony—has joined General Beyers, the late Commandant of the Union Defenco Forces, in a revolt in Orangia and the Western Transvaal, and have already committed acts which place their liv.es beyond all hope of respite when nemesis in tho sliapo of a drastic Government finally stalks them down. Anotbor startling item is the report that a British steamer, the Manchester Commerce, has struck a mine off the Irish coast —where a whole minefield is alleged to have been laid— and sunk, with loss of life. Admiralty has warned off shipping from this danger zone. Certain of the' Thames, channels also are being closed by order of the Admiralty.