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Show i GERMANS SHORT OF AMMUNITION By H. COZENS HARDY. Paris, Sept. 8 Paris Is rejoicing tonight npr the extremely satlsfac-! satlsfac-! tory nature of this afternoon's off I- clnl statement The enemy is bo-I bo-I ing pushed back without great diffl culty from Chantlly, Meaux and Cou-lomnlers Cou-lomnlers and eastward along both banks of the Marne. This afternoon I drove out to tho Frnnco-Brltish advance lines and talked with the soldiers who confirmed con-firmed the news that the cncm a retreating further and further from Paris. On the way I saw o000 prisoners who had been taken by the French at Meaux They were en route for Paris. Many of them are without hatfl or tunies Crowds gathered at the railway stations and watched the train conveying the prisoners pass slowly by The men seemed cowed "frlghtenod out of their wits," as one observer expressed It It is satisfactory to loarn that our casualties yesterday were not heavy. One wounded sergeant told me that the German retreat was precipitate For eighteen miles the enemy did not fire a single shot, but the allies pressed press-ed their advantage hard, constantly firing on the retreating army and pursuing pur-suing it with a great eagerness. Nine guns were taken by the allies ('erman prisoners say the enemy Is short of ammunition and that they have orders to save as many cartridges cartrid-ges as possible. A French officer, who was slightly wounded, told me he thought at least two army corps, comprising the major portion of the Gorman extreme right wing, had been beaten as a result of the fighting on Saturday and Sunday He himself saw 600 of the enemy's dead In a sin gle trench. 1 lie r rencn ravairy nisi iiiKumiieu ihemselves on Sunday, charging down on the German artillery with brilliance brilli-ance In keeping with the dash displayed dis-played at Charlerol It was obvious to me that the German Ger-man prisoners were in the last stage of fatigue. They admitted they had retired through many villages. French Refuse an Armistice. Paris Sept. 0, 12 40 a m The battle bat-tle which is proceeding to the east of Paris appears to he the most lm-portant lm-portant and most stubbornly fought .oiiibat of the campaign The mlli-:ir mlli-:ir authorities decline to give anv indication of the number of men engaged, en-gaged, but hundreds of thousands are participating on both sides According to those In a position to I obtain authentic information, the casualties ca-sualties have been so great that the Germans have requested an armistice of twenty-four hours. The armistice was refused with the response "We grant you that time to get out of France." An official communication issued by the war office shows that the German Ger-man wing, while retreating before the allies, has offered the sternest resistance, re-sistance, delivering several fierce but unsuccessful counter attacks The fighting today extended along both the Ourcq and Marne rivers. In the latter region the British forces have engaged in a strong offensice in undulating country. The progress of the allies has been exceedingly difficult dif-ficult In the center of the allied line several sev-eral further encounters have occurred, the two forces ending tho day with varying fortunes which, however, are regarded as more favorable to the al lies than to their adversaries |