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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 779, 21 February 1871, Page 2

The telegrams of war news to hand bv the San Francisco Mail, although containing no item of paramount importance for either side, indicate that an important military event was about taking place at the departure of the mail, and, ho far as the relief or the capitulation of Paris may be foretold, the incoming mail giving the result of the ten days' fighting, following upon January 15th, will enable a tolerably correct opinion to be formed. To-day or to-morrow the Suez Mail telegrams will probably arrive in Now Zealand, and we shall then be in possession of intelligence from the seat of war to the last week in January. It is as to the movements

on t!ie Loire to which the chief interest now attaches, that being the direction in which the most important diversion in favor of the French must be looked for. The telegrams are, however, sufficiently contradictory to leave the spectator in ; a state of doubt as to which version is the correct ouo. "We are told in one breath that the French have been completely annihilated, and again we learn that a great battle was raging when the mail left, which would at once dissipato the probability of any important advantage having been gained on either side. So far as the news may be relied upon, it would indicate a probability of the French yet proving sufficiently strong to compel the (jrerman armies to raise the sieyo ol Paris. Tie more advantageous terms offered as a basis of peace, as also the terms offered in December last to the authorities for the surrender of Paris, may he accepted as good evidence that the Germans are not 'only heartiiy tired of the siege but are becoming apprehensive as to the future. If by any chance a retreat were to become necessary after a thaw has set in, and in the present state of the roads, it would fare ill with the huge arm v. Anything like a lost battle would try the Germans as they have not vet been • riod, and it only remains for a sortie successful on a large scale, or the arrival of a victorious army from the Loire, to place the besiegers in a very critical position, if Paris is to be saved from capitulation something decisive must be done quickly, so that the news, expected in llokitika to-day, can scarcely fail to bo of the highest interest.