ALL NEW POSITIONS WELL MAINTAINED

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2350, 5 January 1915, Page 5

ALL NEW POSITIONS WELL MAINTAINED

SHARP ARTILLERY ENGAGEMENT ' HEAVY RAINS INTERFERE WITH OPERATIONS ' . London. January 3. ■ A Paris communique states:—"We maintained all our new positions between the'sea and the Lys. The enemy!s sole activity to bean, a -fiolent bombardment Of - Zonnebeke. We progressed five hundred and fifty yards at La Boiselle Om- artillery demolißlied the German Works on the Nouvron plateaux We progressed three hundred yards at Perthes les Hurlus, inflicted heavy' losses on the Germans at Beausejour, and progresed in tho Lb Bouchet wood; near Troyon, and in the LePetre wood.;; . , _ "We captured a trench at Colles-nnr-Plains, near St. Die, bombarded a German train at-Altkirch, and damaged-the raUway south-west of Altkirch. "Tiio relaxation of our offensive is attributable to heavy rams soaking the soil and making operations everywhere almost impossible. "There toe been'heavy artillery engagements on many, ports of the front."- ■ . ■ TAKING OF LA BASS EE A HARD PROBLEM, . . ; ' : London, January 3. 'A-Paris message says: "The taking* of La, Bassee, where two German armv corps aTe quartered andl surrounded by exceptionally strong earthworks, is regarded as essential to any concrete forward move, in order to protect communications.: The Allied forces look upon it as oneof the hardest problems they .have to'solve." SITUATION UNCHANGED ON THE WHOLE FRONT. CReo January 4, 7.15 'p.m.)- . Paris, . January 4. OfiScial.—The weather is badj and the situation is unchanged on tho whole front,.