FIERCE FIGHTING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 251, 1 April 1915, Page 5

FIERCE FIGHTING.

BUT: WITH LITTLE RESULT.

Paris, March 31

fighting has occurred at several points in Argonne, with little result. Seven hundred German dead were counted at Hartmaii3 Weilerkopf.

XEUVE CHAPELLE IX RUINS.

Times and Sydney Sun Services.

London, March 30.

The Eyewitness at headquarters, describing the Xeuve Chapelle battlefield, says that it was originally an unimportant collection of houses and small farms at a junction of country roads, with' a church in the centre. All that is left are'a few crumbling brick houses roofless, surrounding a tall white shapeless mass representing the church. The ground was so furrowed and pitted with shells that only confused mounds of what were formerly Cernian trenches remain. The earth and' stagnant pools are covered with a yellow powder from lyddite shells. The village suggests the havoc of an earthquake. It is impossible to distinguish streets among the rubble and brickwork. In the churchyard the dead were uprooted and reburied. Fallen masonry of the church find crosses from tombs are scattered everywhere. The- only thing that escaped damage was a small crucifix standing erect amid a medley of overturned gravestones. In the north, Xeuve Chapelle line- of breastworks, where the Britishers gallantly faced the machine-guns again ami again, behind 'the British lines are the graves of many. Some were buried where they fell, singly or in little groups;- others in regular cemeteries, a cross over each with the name and regiment. Many graves are covered with turf' and have flowers planted.

FRENCH OFFICIAL REPORT. Paris, March 30. A communique states that a German aeroplane dropped'bombs on Rheims. 'Two civilians were killed. Our artillery compelled the Germans to evacuate Ilc-ndicourt, northeast of St. Mihiel.

LAW OF EXILE. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) Received March 31, S.SO p.m. London, March 31. M. Viviani informed the Duke of Or'leans that it- was impossible to alter the law of"exile fo permit his entry into the French Army.