GERMANS MAKING A STAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 28 March 1917, Page 5

GERMANS MAKING A STAND.

HINDENB'URG’S DEFENSIVE LINES Received 11.35. PARIS, March 27. The Germans seem to be making a stand in the Massif of St. Bobain, which is an elaborately fortified redoubt stretching from the Oise to the east of Chauney, through two forests of Coucy almost to the Aisne. It consists of high ground intersected by deepravines, which are easily defensible. Its weakness is that it does not .quite extend to the Aisne. and the ‘French therefore are able to (hive in the front and south between Mas.~::i.f and Hilly. ’ The French gained a. footing in the forest at Coucy on several points, and are also strongly attacking Neuville. Fighting is - being conducted in the woods without trenches in the oldfashioned manner. , The so-called Hindenburg position consists of a labyrinth of concreted trenches connected by ‘covered ways, protected and lined by barbed wire. BELGIUM UNDER GERMAN RULE. ' LONDON, March 27. An Englishman who has been living unintered in Roubaix, Lille, Brussels and Antwerp since the outbreak of the war, describes life in the occupied territories. German rule at the outset was comparatively mild. Civilians were ordered indoors at 8 o’clock except for a fortnight, when they were sent inndoors at five because they cheered a Es'ritish airman who brougrt down a Fokker over the town. Roubaix Was repeatedly plastered with orders regulating civilian life. Every German victory was compulsorily celebrated. English and French newspapers were smuggled in. The Times was loaned at 2s per hour. The poor- ?!‘ class 7‘~Pir‘ '1 frown {*(‘n‘.is‘~.s'm~ I'‘ -

back room vreekly, where war news was read. VVllen the Alli_es declared 1 blockade in Warch 1915 the German iron heel appeared and civilians were treated more rigorously and fined.