WESTERN FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 19 September 1917, Page 5

WESTERN FRONT.

PATROL ENCOUNTERS. Received 9.5. LONDON, Sept 18. Sir Douglas Haig reports that only patrol encounters have taken place in the Ypres sector. CONSULAR BUILDINGS DESTROYED. BY GERMAN BOMBS. Received 9.20. LONDON, Sept 18. The United States Consular building at Dunkirk was wrecked by a German bomb on September 7. GREAT AERIAL ACTIVITY LONDON, Sept 17. Marshal Haig reports that the enemy’s attempted raid southward of Lombaertzyde was repulsed. Our artillery is active in the Ypres sector, and the enemy’s less marked, except southward of Lens. In the neighbourhood of Nieuport the enemy’s aeroplanes dropped fifty bombs behind our lines yesterday morning. The damage done was- slight. Our aeroplanes dropped bombs on the enemy’s aerodrome billets, and fired 1000 machine-gun rounds at various scattering 2000 infantry, from a height of 100 feet. We brought down eleven enemy machines, while eight of our machines are missing. FRENCH COMMUNIQUE. LONDON, Sept 17. A French communique states there is very considerable artillery fire on both banks of the Meuse, especially to the north of Hill 344 and Caurieres Wood. Our aviators dropped fifteen tons of bombs on the barracks and munition factories at Stuttgart and Uckingen, the aerodrome at Colmar, the Logelback military establishment south of Metz, and the railway stations at Thionville and Sarreburg. THE HORRORS OF LENS. LONDON, Sept 17. Mr Philip Gibb s describes the increasingly hopeless plight of the Germans at Lens wffiich is one vast ruin surrounded by other ruins stretching for miles. The Germans’ only chance of safety is in sheltering underground, but the tunnels are no more than death traps when a falling house block the, entrance, or, as often happens, the heavy deep-piercing shells cause the tunnels to collapse. The Canadians frequently drench ' Lens with gas, which penetrated the cellars dug-outs and tunnels, and stifles the men before they have time to stretch out a hand for a mask.

REWARD OFFERED. LONDON, Sept 18. The Daily Mail states that the French military authorities have informed General Pershing that t-he Kaiser has offered a reward and three weeks’ leave for the first German making an American prisoner. BOYCOTTING GERMANS SEAMEN AND FIREMEN IN EARNEST. LONDON, September 17. The Seamen’s and Foremen’s Union are organising a boycott of all Germans until twelve months after the war, during which period seamen will not handle any goods of German origin; thc$ T will not enter any German ports or sail any ship whereon there is a German sailor. For every crime the Germans commit on sea or land henceforward, the Union will add one month to the boycott.. EDISON’S LATEST. TORPEDO-DEFLECTING DEVICE. WASHINGTON, iSept. IS There is great interest in Edison’s secret new torpedo deflecting device. A spectacular test was made on Sunday, when the passengers on a liner saw a torpedo jump away from the ship.