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Show fIVE HUNDRED BRITISH FALL INTO HANDS OF GERMANS FOLLOWING FOL-LOWING VIOLENT CONFLICT. The French Claim to Have Repulsed Invading Army South of Lille .German Infantry Regiment Said to Have .Been Annihilated. Fierce fighting between the allies ind the Germans continues in the western theatre of war, especially in the district near the North sea coast in Belgium, around Nieuport and southwesterly toward the River Lys. The Germans claim that they have thrown additional forces westward across tie Yser 'between Nieuport and Dixmude, and that, despite the fact that the allies had received rein.-forcements, rein.-forcements, the Germans have advanced ad-vanced at several points northeast of Ypres and taken over 600 British prisoners, pris-oners, several of them officers The latest French report admits that the Germans have crossed the Y-ser, but goeB .no further in this respect. re-spect. It is not known, therefore, whether this is a reiteration of thej previous acknowledgement of a Gen man crossing there or is confirmation of the last German claim. Along the remainder of the battle, front In Belgium only brief mention of the operations is made. South of Lille the French claim repulses td the Germans and advances by the ah lies near Soissons and Craonne. Artillery engagements are proceed! Ing on heights of the Meuse and iq the Woevra district. In the Argonnej i German infantry regiment is said to have been annihilated. The continuation of the great battle; which has been in progress ever since the Germans essayed their advance on the coast toward the French seaport Is reported in the official dispatches and apparently the .fire of the opposi Germany is said to have sent many thousands of reinforcements to aid the right wing in forcing its way through what is, from a strategic) standpoint, the most important piece of territory in .northern Belgium. Butj the (Belgians are fighting hard and there is no doubt that French reinforcements, rein-forcements, and possibly British, have been brought up to aid the allied armies. The French official communication declares aJl attacks of the Germans from the North sea to the south of Arras have been repulsed, which ia, a rather more optimistic view from the French standpoint than expressed In an earlier announcement to the effect that the Germans had made headway in certain points. In addition the French have occupied occu-pied the important position of Melz-court, Melz-court, which commands the roads leading from Varennes, around which there are strong German forces, to the valley of the Aisne. In the east heavy engagements continue between the Russians and the Austro-Hungarian forces in the vicinity of Radom and Ivangorod in Poland and between the Austrians and the Russians south of Przemysl, in Galicia. The Austrians have driven the Montenegrins Mon-tenegrins from positions on the Bosnian Bos-nian frontier.. General Sir Charles Whittingham Horsely Douglas, chief of the British general staff, is dead. The death Is also reported of the German Major General Poeohhammer, who was killed in action in the Argonne forest. Berlin announces that it was the submarine U-9 -which recently sank the British cruiser Hawke in the North sea. Previously the U-9 sank the cruisers Aboukir, Lressy ana Hogue. The submarine at last has returned to her home port. Commander Luedecke of the commerce com-merce raiding German cruiser Karlsruhe Karls-ruhe has been promoted to be a captain. cap-tain. American cotton shipments will not be considered contraband of war. Great Britain has notified the United States government to this effect. This will permit the safe movement of cot ton to any point, including even Germany Ger-many and Austria. It is believed the British government's decisitn with regard to cotton will also apply to noncontraband cargoes from a neutral neu-tral country transported in neutral ships. |