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Show , PROGRESS 0 THE WAR. The pact week lias witnessed the fur-thi-r retirement of tie Germans on the western front and continued success of the allied armies elsewhere, ft has also witnessed the beginning of a peace offensive of-fensive lcun:hed hy the new imperial chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden. The cry uf the Berlin government for peace is due to the rapid advance of the American, British and French troops and the inability of the kaiser's forces to make a stand. Anglo-American troops have won a . series of victories in the Canibrai sector. sec-tor. Douai is being evacuated as one of tie immediate results, while the whole district is expected to be cleared of the Huns in a very short time. The distance to Belgium on this part of the line is comparatively short, and at the trait the kaiser's army is now traveling it should not take them long to cross the border, with the English, American, Australian and Canadian troops in close pursuit. The recovery of this strip of territory by the allies will doubtless be followed by the withdrawal of th Germans Ger-mans from some of the Belgium ports, and it is said that preparations for evacuation have already begun. If these ports are taken the allies will secure another great advantage, and it is not believed the Germans wij remain in any part of Belgium very long. To the south, where the French and Americans are operating, a steady advance ad-vance has been made during the week. Grand Pre, the important railway town at the head of the Aire river, twenty-five twenty-five miles northwest of Verdun, has been entered by the French troops, and Laon. the great strategic rail base and southern hinge of what remains of the Eindenburg line., is being evacuated. The Americans have completed the work of clearing up Argocne forest and are advancing between that heavily wooded area and the Meuse. In two days Pershing's men captured 5000 prisoners, pris-oners, and their total bag is doubtless several times that number. Many thou-" thou-" sand French civilians have been liberated lib-erated by the allies in the past seven days. Some of these old men, women and children were in a pitiable condition condi-tion when rescued, having been without . food for seventy-two hours. General AUenbv has made still further fur-ther gains since the capture of the ancient an-cient city of Damascus, the Turks usually usu-ally fleeing upon the approach of the British. The Serbians are moving back into their own country as the Bulgarians Bul-garians get out, and at last accounts King Peter's troops were storming the important city of Xish. The armies are marking time on the Italian front', and an extensive move- - ment is not to be expected until some ' time next spring. There has been little real news from Russia for some days, - but there seems to be much hope that the situation-will soon be clear.' At last accounts Lenine and Trotzky were losing their hold. Kumania has not been able to re-enter the war, but is expected to do so "t the earliest possible moment. mo-ment. The ex-king of Bulgaria has taken refuge in Austria. There is considerable con-siderable unrest in Hungary, and some of the statesmen are talking of cutting loose from the dual monarchy. There has been a renewal of submarine subma-rine activity during the week and several sev-eral allied vessels have been sent down and hundreds of lives lost. One ship was shelled as it was sinking after being be-ing torpedoed, and those not killed by the explosion were given no chance to escape. Lifeboats also were fired upon by the crew of the U-boat. Some hundreds hun-dreds of American soldiers were drowned when the transport Otranto collided with the steamer Kashmir be-'. be-'. tween the Scottish and Irish coasts, the catastrophe occurring during a violent vio-lent gale. The war event of importance on this side of the ocezn nas the "reply" of President ViUon to the peace proposals of Prince Maximilian, the action of the chief executive being almost unanimously unani-mously approved by the press of the United Stares and the newspapers and itates.r.eu of a'.l tho allied countries. |