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Show BRITISH DEFEAT TURKS ON TIGRIS Prospect of the Relief of Gen. TownshenePs Forces is Now in Sight. London, April 5, 8:09 p. m. A victory vic-tory for the British over the Turks on the Tigris below Kut-el-Amara has been reported by General Lake in command of the British forces there. The Turkish entrenched positions at Emm-El-Henne was attacked and carried at 5 o'clock this morning by tho Tigris corps, General Lake telegraphed, tele-graphed, and the operations aro proceeding pro-ceeding satisfactorily. The capture of ,Umm-El-Henne, which is on the Tigris, about 20 miles down stream from Kut-El-Amara, is the most important news from this theater in some time and Is regarded here as giving promise of the early relief of General TownBend's force, which has been besieged in KutrEl-Amara KutrEl-Amara since the first week In December. Decem-ber. UmmrEVHenna is a. strong position posi-tion at an important bend of tbe river and 1h said to be the last serious barrier bar-rier to tho relief of General Town-shend, Town-shend, although two or three less strong positions aro still to be overcome over-come before Kut-El-Amara is reached. reach-ed. Next to the Dardanelles expedition, tho operations in Mesopotamia have been a subject on which the government govern-ment has been more criticized than any other, not only on account of the breakdown in the hospital arrangements, arrange-ments, but on the question of responsibility respon-sibility for the advance, with insufficient insuf-ficient forces, toward Bagdad. Asin the case of the Dardanelles the critics accused tho ministers at home of insisting on the expedition against the advice of the military authorities au-thorities in India and on the spot. This accusation, however, met with an unqualified contradiction by Austen Aus-ten Chamberlain, secretary for India, In-dia, in the house of commons yesterday yester-day Mr Chamberlain declared that the advance on Bagdad was undertaken under-taken on the advice of the commander-in-chief in Mesopotamia. for the moment the lnfaiiry of both sides Is quiet everywhere along the western front In France. On the much-disputed sectors around Verdun Ver-dun the only activity has been an intermittent in-termittent bombardment in the region re-gion of Douaumont and Vaux. This calm follows a successful offensive undertaken by the French, in which they recaptured some of their lost ground and drove the Germans back. On the eastern line in Russia, the Germans have taken up the offensive offen-sive and are attacking heavily with Infantry and artillery the Russian positions. po-sitions. Unofficial advices from Petrograd Pe-trograd say, however, that the Germans Ger-mans nowhere have been able to penetrate pen-etrate the Russian line In frontal attacks. at-tacks. The Italians and Aust,rians are continuing con-tinuing their operations along the Austro-Itallan front, but no important import-ant changes in positions have occurred oc-curred Berlin reports the loss during March of 14 German aeroplanes and of -14 British and French machines Thirty-eight of the latter were brought to earth in air combats, according to Berlin. Ambassador Page has forwarded from London to Washington metal found in the steamer Sussex, recently damaged by an explosion, which killed kill-ed seveial persons and wounded some Americans. The embassy in London Is credited with the belief that tht-metal tht-metal came from a German torpedo. Spain has sent a note to Germany protesting against the torpedoing of the Sussex, In which several Spaniards Span-iards lost their lives A British patrol boat has picked up oft the Orkney Islands, Scotland, the Brazilian steamer Sandana de Gama, bound from Para, Brazil, for New York, with a cargo of rubber. As the steamer was several thousand miles out of her course the British arc inclined in-clined to the belief that she was attempting at-tempting to run the blockade. nn |