FRENCH PASSING ON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 260, 13 April 1915, Page 5

FRENCH PASSING ON.

MORE TRENCHES TAKEN. Received April 12, 9.15 p.m. Paris, April 12. Official: After an all-night struggle we captured three hundred metres of trendies in the Argonne. We captured new lines of trenches at Bois d'Ailly. HOW FIGHTING IS CONTROLLED. INTERESTING DETAILS. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, 'April 11. The eye-witness at headquarters describes how the fighting is controlled by the superior commanders. Brigade commanders will prohably be esconced in dug-outs, cellars or shelters within a few hundred yards of the firing-line, a telephone connecting them with the battalion headquarters, through which information is passed to the army headquarters, which are in a farmhouse, situation a mile from the firing line. Inside the house everything seems to depend on maps recording every change of position. As reports from the front arrive, straggles arc made perfectly clear. A message tells that a battalion has been checked on the front of the enemy. 'Perhaps the next message tells that some brigadier has sent his last reserves to work round the flank. A third may notify the capture of prisoners. A message comes indistinctly through a volume of t sound. There is a period of suspense until the next report states laconically that the counter-at-tack has been repulsed throughout. During the hours of darkness flares rise in the sky over the battlefield, and the beams of searchlights occasionally wander across, lighting up the battlefield parapets, the dark patches of blood still on the forts, the dead lying or halfimmersed in the water which fills the ruins of the trenches. Near at hand the darkness is pierced by the flashes of rifles, while far away in front the flashes of the discharges of guns are reflected in the sky like the play of summer lightning.

GENERAL JOFFRE AND ALCOHOL. SALE TO TROOPS FORBIDDEN. Received April 12, 5.5 p.m. London, April 12. General Joffre lias issued a manifesto stating that it is the duty of all patriots to fight alcoholism in all its forms. He has forbidden the sale of intoxicants to the allied armies, and the only alcohol allowed being included in the rations.

MORE GERMAN KULTUR. OFFICERS' ORGIES. Paris, April 11. The Grand Hotel, Brussels, which was transformed into the German headquarters, has been closed in consequence of scandals. A certain general, after an all-night orgie, discovered that important documents had disappeared. Several officers committed suicide. Some days .later, on another occasion, after a midnight orgie, a free fight with sabres and revolvers ensued, owing t» Bavarian officers jeering at the scars on the Prussians' faces. Five officers were killed and several wounded. SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. Received April 12, 11.20 p.m. Paris, April 12. Le Matin reports that the French occupy a front of 543 miles, the British 31, the Belgians 17, the Russians 950, the Servians and Montenegrins 21 miles. A NEW ZEALANDER KILLED. Received April 12, 5.5 p.m. London, April 12. Lieutenant Gilbert Ferrier, of the Royal Fusiliers, formerly of New Zealand, was killed in action.