WESTERN FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 5 July 1917, Page 5

WESTERN FRONT.

GERMAN'S DESPERATE EFFORTS REPULSED WITH HEAVY LOSSES The High Commissioner "reports: LONDON, July 4. French official: Yesterday a powerful German offensive was prolonged all night from Jouy as far as eastward of California Plateau, on a vast front. The Germans violently and repeatedly attacked with large“effectives, the assault being principally “directed on points eastward of proidmont Farm, westward and eastward of Cerny, and northward of AillesUafso on the casemates of the California Plateau. The attack was completely checked with heavy losses.

BRITAIN’S GREAT GUNS. LONDON, July 3. Renter's special correspondent at the British front gives an extract from a German letter found on Massines ridge: There have been fourteen days of hellish fire day and night. We crouch together in holes awaiting our doom, wearing gas masks as the English fire gas shells and hundred-weight aerial torpedoes. Trench work is impossible with shrapnel all night. So far our division, composed of three renients, has lost 3400 in barely three months. We are quite helpless against the British. We cannot sit or lie down Our artillery connot fire by day. We all hope we shall be prisonered, otherwise all must go mad. SUCCESSFUL BRITISH RAIDS. LONDON, July 3. Sir Douglas Haig reports: We successfully raided westward of Havrincourt and northward of Nieuport. We repulsed an attack southward of the Cojeul river.

THE FRENCH OFFENSIVE. GERMANS’ DESPERATE ATTACKS FAIL. LONDON, July 3. French communique; Yesterday evening, after bombardment, the Germans made a series of violent attacks on the trenches w r hich we recaptured on both ' sides of the Paissy-Allies road. A most violent struggle all night ended in the complete (defeat of pnemy. We maintained all our positions. The artillery duel increased in intensity at midnight in the Hill 304 and Avocourt Wood sector. The Germans, early in the morning, attacked on a front of 500 metres at the southern extremity of the wood, our fire smashing the agsaulting waves, which were unable to reach our lines. Wireless German official: Two French attacks south-west of Cerny broke down.

A TREMENDOUS STRUGGLE. LONDON, July 3. The Paris correspondent of the “Times” says the violence of the bombardment on Chemin des Dames caused the French to retire from their front line trench. Their batteries were immediately concentrated on the line, which the enemy, in spite of severe losses, were unable to hold. A splendid counter-attack in the evening swept the Crown Prince from his costly perch. The Germans are now modifying their method of attack, endeavouring to flatten the French trenches before attacking, thus destroying their prospects of shelter against the French guns, and involving ruinous losses. ENEMY ATTACKS REPULSED. LONDON, July 3. The High Commissioner reports: French official—At Allies and Paissy road German attacks and our counterattacks made a lively battle, which resulted in the enemy’s failure. Leftwards of the Meuse, between Hill 304 and Avocourt Wood, the Gormans attacked on a 500 metre front. The assault waves Were brokpn without reaching our lines.

ENEMY AERIAL ACTIVITY INCREASING. Received 9 a.ra. LONDON, July 3. Sir Douglas Haig reports consider able reciprocal artilleryiug in the re gion of Yprcs. There was an on cun raid southeast of Laventie. Host laerial activity has markedly incre-.s’' and our aeroplanes participated i-> cessful artilleryiug and bombing rs

IN CHINA RESTORATION OF MONARCHY SUICIDAL. Received 11.35. LONDON, July 4. The Morning Post’s Tientsing correspondent states prominent men think the resoration of the monarchy a suicidal step, and will not last three weeks. It is reported the Emperor was conducted to the Palace at o’clock in the morning, and Chang Huan’s troops seven hours’ later were in possession of all the strategic points of Peking, including the entrances to the President’s palace. The Emperor appointed Chang Huan Premier, and also appointed a nSw Cabinet, composed of Manchus, and offered the President a Grand Dukedom. Troops hre strongly guarding the railway, telegraphs, and post offices. Chang Huan has forbidden the publication of newspapers for three days. The ex-Premier is still the strongest military leader in the north. The vicepresident and military governors of Shantung promised him support. Diplomatists have warned Imperialists they will be held responsible for the safety of the President, the report of whose suicide is untrue.

GENERAL GABLES THE MAN POWER QUESTION. i ALLIED AGREEMENT. Received 8.45. LONDON, July 3. The House of LOTUS'read a seconA time a Bill providing for the application of an agreement with the Allied Powers for the 'mutual enlistment of subjects resident in each other’s countries. NO PEACE WITH ENGLAND. GERMAN VIEW OF MR. LLOYD GEORGE’S SPEECH. The “Lokal Anzeiger,” commenting upon Mr. Lloyd George’s speech, under the heading, “Lloyd George’s Phrases,” says:— “Mr. Lloyd George has given us clearly to understand that he does not want peace with a Germany that refuses to dance to English piping. If he.really means this we know that we cannot make peace with England. Therefore we must unite our strength until arms have decided the issue, and we ought to shelve our domestic duties until later, when our frontier is safe again.”

The paper then expresses the hope that Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson will come to grief. The “Vossiche Zeitung” writes that England owes much to Prussian militarism, especially to the Prussia which gained the battle of Waterloo, which freed England from the men-’ ace of Napoleon. W’hat enrages England is that the same military Prussia has now become a first-class naval Power. The paper ends by saying that the fear of defeat is clear in Mr. Lloyd George’s speech. The same paper also that Mr. Lloyd George’s speech embodies a mixture of flattery and warning, and that Mr. Lloyd George reckoned on the shortness of memory of the Americans and the little heed they pay to their own history.

It concludes as follows:—“Whether Mr. Lloyd George’s delight that America will sit at the conference table which will have to decide on the formation of the old and new world is really so sincere may be questioned. Even Mr. Lloyd George cannot deny that the problems will thereby be made more complicated. How he and his colleagues will deal with the consequences is their business. If they were victors in this gigantic struggle then ways and means could be found to satisfy all predatory desires, hut they are not victors, and a recognition of this fact may be clearly discerned in Mr. Lloyd George’s speech. No victor speaks thus. No one speaks thus who believes in the certainty of victory.”