WAR NEWS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 14 February 1918, Page 3

WAR NEWS.

MONDAY

Verdun Front Active — Enemy Multiply Attacks—Heavy Losses and No Gains—German Ultimatum to Bolsheviks — Treaty Signed with Ukraine Rada. The right bank of the Meuse, north of Verdun, is again practictally an active battle sector. •ing the past week the mans have been multiplying .cks with a fury and persistence which recall the onslaughts of two years ago. The enemy has suffered heavily without gaining the semblance of an advantage. The Germans are also attempting raiding activity on the British front. A semi-official message from .Germany states that peace has |been signed between Germany jj^nd the Ukraine Rada, representing one of the two principal •"'jactions i n the Ukraine It is llpported that Germany has sent fpkn ultimatum to the Bolsheviks threatening a resumption of military operations unless they agree to Germany's terms. Desultory fighting continues in Finland with varying fortunes.

TUESDAY Raids in the West—Enemy Efforts Repulsed — Forcing Peace on Roumania -- Peremptory German Demands. Sir Douglas Haig reports the repulse of an enemy raid south of Houthulst Wood, on the Ypres front, and artillery activity in the region of Cambrai. The air service is active in spite of unfavourable weather. A raid was made near Metz with good results.

A French report describes fierce artillery combats on both banks of the Meuse and in the Vosges. An enemy surprise attack in the Argonne failed. An ultimatum peremptorily calling upon Roumania to negotiate peace within four days was sent by Germany on February 5. The Roumanian Cabinet resigned on February 8. Though the period fixed by the ultimatum expired on February 9, there have been no developments. The Roumanian Legation from Petrograd has arrived in Sweden. A Bolshevik courier travelled with them through Finland to protect them. At Haparanda he received a message from M. Trotsky ordering him to kill the Minister, M. Diamandi. The Finns, however, hearing the message, killed the courier. Further reports from Denmark describe scenes of terror and bloodshed in Finland.

WEDNESDAY Peace by Conquest—Kaiser's Determination — Allied Terms Reaffirmed — Ukraine Enters into Treaty. The Kaiser, in a speech at Hamburg, declared that a German victory must precede peace. Everyone, from schoolboy to greybeard, must set his thoughts on conquest. The German troops, he said, would gain it under the great Hindenburg. A statement in reply to the peace terms enunciated by the German Chancellor and the Austrian Foreign Minister has been made by the President of the United States. Mr Wilson emphasises that no treaty can be concluded which does not embody the principal of essential justice to " small nations," that no separate compacts are possible and that self determination must be no empty phrase, but a vital principle governing the negotiations. The peace treaty between the Central Powers and the Ukraine provides for a return to pre-war frontiers between Russia and Austria, and the evacuation of occupied territory upon ratification of the treaty. There are to be no indemnities and no reparation.

THURSDAY Ukraine Treaty — Germany Cedes Territory — Exploiting Moral \^ .Effect— Italian Artillery Active— M^ Massed Forces Decimated. The agreement concluded beye'en the Central Powers and Ukraine establish.es the pre\|jLr frontiers and in addition to the latter republic the whole of Volhynia, a strip of South-eastern Poland, and part of the government of G-rodna. The announcement of the conclusion of peace with the Ukraine was the occasion.of an outburst from the Kaiser, in which he proclaimed that the Germans were God's instrument to bring the peoples oi the world back to the right path. The Italian artillery decimated enemy forces massing at two points on the Brenta section on the mountain front, preventing the development of an attack,