In the West

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 49, 28 June 1915, Page 5

In the West

IN NORTH OF FRANCE.

SPLENDID FRENCH PROGRESS. Times and Sydney Sun Service. (Received 8.0 a.m.) ( A correspondent says that the French progressed in the north of France and were almost uninterrupted. The Germans, using gas shells in increasing quantities, were powerless to arrest the advance. Plentiful supplies of ammunition enable the French to prevent counter-attacks twhilst'fortifying the new position.

THE FRENCH IN ALSACE.

FLIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS. Times *nd Sydney Bto Hibvioi. (Received 8.0 a.m.) London, June 27. The Zurich Post says that'the towns and villages in the Muuster Valley, in Alsace, have been hurriedly evacuated by the inhabitants in consequence of the French advance.

GERMAN REPRISALS.

FRENCH TOWNS HEAVILY FINED. [Cnitk» Pbm* A«BOOIAttON.] (Received 8.30 a.m.) Amsterdam, June 27. An official message from Berlin states that the towns of Valenciennes and Roubaix were fined 150,000 francs each a s a reprisal for the French bombardment of the German Consulates in the open towns of Alexandretta and Haiffa and for the damage done to German and Turkish property.

IN DEFENCE OF CAS.

GERMAN PRESS COMMENT. (Received 8.20 a.m.) Amsterdam, .Tune 20. Tlie Cologne Gazette, in a semiofficial defence of tlie asphyxiating gases, says: "The basic idea of the Hague agreement was the prevention. of unnecessary cruelty and unnecessary killing, when there were milder methods of putting out of action. Possibly, it always has been permissible to compel the evacuation of positions by flooding, but those who were not indignant and surprised wlier water was used as a weapon against us in Flanders are not entitled to be indignant when we employ air to carry stupefying gases. The Hague Convention desired to prevent the wholesale destruction of human lives without a chance of escape, which would occur if poisonOu.s gas shells rained down on a defenceless enem,\ who could not see them coming and were irremediably exposed thereto Changed forms of warfare make new methods continually necessary, and since there is war one must draw con elusions from the conditions attend ing trench warfare. The enemy' outcry is only .due to incapacity U emulate the results of German sci ence.

THE WESTERN FRONT.

} The High Commissioner reports: — London (6.20 p.m.), June 28. North of Arras the Germans regained a footing on a cross-road at North Souchez on a front of about two hundred metres. In the Argonne at Bagatelle, the enemy attacked with extreme violence at the beginning of the night, and after a hot struggle was finally repulsed. On the heights of the Meuse, in a trench at Calonne. the combat continued all night, the French keeping the gains previously made. French aviators on Friday threw twenty bombs on the railway station at Douai and on neighbouring stations. Douai was seriously damaged.