Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-12-30 | Page 8 | Progress of the War

PROGRESS OF THE WAR. The expected winter 'offensive in France hag not yet developed despite the heavy movements of troops from tho eastern to the western front. Nevertheless Never-theless the Teutons have continued to conduct extensive drives against tho Italian positions in the mountains, taking tak-ing advantugo of open weather antl the unusually light fail of snow. Ten days ago the Teutons began an attack which lind for its object the great stronghold of Jfonte Grappa. To gain a strategic position on its flank they assiuled Monlo Azoloue to the northwest. Tney smothered the hill with big shells and then carried it by assault and worked their way down toward to-ward Monte Ooston, which stands between be-tween Azolone and Grappa. Here they wore stopped and in the- noxt day or two the Italians, by counter-attacks, retook positions at the foot of Monte Azulone and even some of the commanding com-manding positions on the higher ground. This saved the situation in the region of Grappa and the Teutons shifted their attacks westward to the Asiago zone. To Pome extent the fighting was like that oast of the Brenta. The invaders swept forward through the first lines and were only stopped at the rear Italian Ital-ian positions. Tho Italians counter-attacked with great fury and pressed back the foo into his old positions. The enomy reaction, however, was strong. An Italian contingent which succeeded in retaking Monte Val Bella was driven back after some hours of fighting. fight-ing. Other detachments, having ascended as-cended the slopes of Col del Kocco, engaged en-gaged the enemy in hand-to-hand fighting fight-ing near the summit They, too, were forced to retire, bnt on the whole the Roman resistance was such as to stop the Teutons far short of their object, which is to break into the Venetian plains. Tho invaders have resorted to extensive exten-sive air raids against the cities of northern Italy. The first raid of magnitude mag-nitude was against Treviso. The airmen air-men made their way close to the city and dropped tombs, but British and Italian airmen attacked and "downed eleven of the twenty-five enemy machines. ma-chines. On the following day the Ten-tons Ten-tons attacked Treviso, Padua and several sev-eral other cities, killing and wounding many. On the Piave river afc Piave Vecchia the enemy delivered a powerful blow to divert attention from the main offensive of-fensive in the mountains. They succeeded suc-ceeded in crossing the rivor, but were driven back. In France German raids at Verdun were successful in gaining prisoners-The prisoners-The fighting along tho remainder of the French and English lines has been confined to bombardment and raids. Tho Teutons, having induced the Bolsheviki to enter into a truce in the name of Russia, have proposed peace terms, offering the allies the status quo. This would mean that the British would give back to Germany all captured cap-tured colonies and would restore Jerusalem Jer-usalem and the occupied regions of Mesopotamia to Turkey. France would evacaate Alsace and Germany would evacuate northern France, Belgium, Serbia, Rumania and Poland. The insincerity in-sincerity of the offer is revealed by the fact that Bulgaria's envoy in Washington says that Bulgaria has not promised to evacuate Serbia and Macedonia Mace-donia and will not evacuate these regions re-gions unless forced out. The allies, through Lloyd George and the French foreign minister, have indicated that the terms are inacceptable. The Bolsheviki still control Petro-grad, Petro-grad, northern Russia and much of Si--beria. At Harbin, a junction point of the Siberian and Manchurian railways, the Bolsheviki tried to take control, but were defeated by Chinese troops and disarmed. The operations of Generals Korni'.off, Kaledines and Dutoff, in southeastern and eastern Russia, are lost in obscurity, owing to the fact that the Bolsheviki control the wires. In Palestine the British have had some severe fights with the enemy. Aided by warships they have pressed back the Turks north of Jaffa for some miles. Northwest of Jerusalem they captured four or five towns in lively fighting. The Moslem army, under un-der German control, reacted fiercely just to the north and northeast of the Holy City. They drove in the British pickets in a fierce offensive, but Foon were checked and hurled out of the positions po-sitions from which they started. The British then advanced o er a nine-mile front to a d-:th of two and a half The lo:-rs to Briti-h shir.ping show a sui'M;tnt:ul dr":re;i-e. Klevn rner-rl. rner-rl. -Hitmen rf i::or than 1''0 tons were -mk by inin.s and suVranr.fM and one I rr.r-ri:h:LnTrr.:iu under that tonnage was ir-st royed. An unnarr.ed American merchantman i-i given credit for sinking a L-boat with two shots. The first shot fell dose and the second blew the submarine subma-rine to pieces. Three British destrovers were destroyed de-stroyed in a fog by mines on the Butch .oast.