St. John's Daily Star, 1918-06-15

              the st john's daily star newfoundland volume iv 3.00 per annum * saturday june 15 1918 probs mostly fair no 1281 german forces now definitely stopped in drive on parisi allies regain territory from foe in many sectors i submarines continue to take toll of shipping off coast of america sub sinks 6 u s ships i u-151 operating off the american atlantic coast sunk up to june 2nd fifteen ships her commander served in u.s navy ' hew york june 15.—the com maridei of the u-151 one of the cerfnan submarines which has been operating off the american atlantic coast has been identified as capt ncustidti and he served five years as ,-, ninner's mate in the u s navy 1 cording to affidavits of officers and ? prs of the schooners hattie b dunn edna and hauppage victims o the submarine the documents were brought here today by naval re c c officers arriving from cuba the submarine is manned by a rr.v of 75 is 210 feet long 28 wide has ? shell of three quarter inch steel two 5.9 inch guns mounted fore and apt is equipped with two periscopes crtj over the conning tower and the r hei aft has four stationary rapid lie guns on deck below deck in rjck carries 100 rapid fire rifles and had aboard 18 torpedoes according to the affidavits capt ncustidt told his captives hey'said that his vessel left kiel april 14th and up to june 2nd had 15 chips six of which were americans fr3m t'-.e schooner isabel s wiley the commander declared he took u-boat apes freighter : hun submarine operating : off the american coast [ is disguised as an ordi nary steamer crew hold dance celebrate victory - an atlantic port june 15 ; at least one of the german sub 1 marines operating off the amreican z coast is camouflaged so as to present at a distance the appearance of an ordinary iyeighter according to capt i bratland master of the norwegian ■ steamer vinland one of the raider's 5 victims - capt bratland who was a pris oner on the submarine for several hours said today she had iron bul warks three or four feet high around her decks with an elevated bow ," standing high out of the water and looks much like a cargo carrier two | hundred feet long '. the captain declared he was told the u-boat crew had a dance on deck j every night to celebrate victories of the day 5 1 1 : r : , enough food to provision his craft for six weeks the u-boat skipper professed reluctance to sink amen can ships but said he had no alter native as he had been ordered by wireless from kiel to get busy or < come home drive was only feint experts believe present battles only fought to mask real purpose of german high command channel ports are main objects washington june 15—the pres ent lull on the battlefront in france only pressages a new and more violent storm of attacks on the allied lines is the military opinion here the impression is rapidly strengthening that the stage is almost set for a renewal of the german main thrust at the british army around amiens with the channel o»ast as the objective v belief has nev.r wavered among the majority of officers here that the real purpose of the german general staff has been from the first to cut the allied armies apart by a drive that would carry them to the channel when arrived at that goal massed attacks would be hurled against the northern sector for the purpose of destroying the british army while a strong defence was maintained again st the french to the south the thrusts at paris have been looked upon as well planned and well executed feints designed to weaken the amiens front before the final effort should be made there by no other theory can these observers explain the sequence of the german operations in the great battle and on no other basis they say can the campaign of defense waged by gen eral foch be understood % » british casualties london june 14—british casual ties reported in the week ending to day totalled 34,171 officers aijd men of this number 4,447 were killed the casualties were divided as fol lows : officers killed or died of avounds 231 men 4,216 officers wounded or missing 899 men 28,825 1 t submarine operations lessened paris june 14 via reuter's ot tawa agency.)—enemy submarine operations have lessened greatly in the western and central english channel through the blockading of zeebrugge and ostend the number of submarines operating has also ap preciably diminished owing to the se vere losses in recent months .» » — new cabinet for britain ministry may be appoint ed in old country to deal with purely do mestic matters war cabinet may delegate powers london june 14—the question of establishing a second cabinet in great britain to deal with the purely domestic affairs and relieve the war cabinet of the pressure of that work will be brought before both houses of parliament next week the subject has been discussed in the press recently and it has been rumored that the government had decided on two cabinets one do mestic and the other war according to the times however the present war cabinet is not like ly to agree to any such definite di vision of the functions of the gov ernment although it is understood that some changes in the present ma chinery are planned the times says that questions of purely domestic interest will be de cided in future by a committee or committee of ministers to which the powers of the war cabinet will be uglc&alcu io till 5 calcu'i whither are they bound ? mommmmt ■ t with the great drive in progress on the west front the militarist are again rampant in germany w and appear to have the kaiser still closely yoked up to their ambitio vs schemes momentary military gains appear to blind germany's rulers to all considerations except their ambitious aims of world dornma ' tian such an ambition can never be realised while there is a liberty-loving natron m existence where then can that ambition land germany but in rum and humiliation main german effort yet to be launched allied leaders expect renewed foe offensive on record scale 1 drive of crown prince's aeiviy f on paris definitely stopped r " " ' ' ' 10nd0n june 15.—the attempted l drive by the armies of the get man crown prince toward paris seens to have been checked with thousands of their men having been fed to the guns on the mont didier-noyon and , soissons-villers cotterets sectors in the mad rush to pierce the allied lines in these regions and thus gain fair way to the french capital the manoeuvres of the german commanders apparently have brought ■ to the enemy nothing more than the i obliteration of the noyon salient and . the capture of a few unimportant po sitions southwest of soissons near the outskirts of the villers cotterets forest thus the sixth day of the offensive between mont didier and noyon wit 1 nessed only small local actions the depleted german forces evidently ' fearing again to test the mettle of t the french and allied troops whose ■ guns machine guns and rifles had ■ worked such havoc among them less : than three days was required by the i allies to bring the enemy to a virtual t halt south of the aisne the feeling still prevails in military i circles in france that the main ef i fort of the germans has not yet been i launched and speculation is rife as • to when it will come and what the general object will be whether paris , or the channel ports it is known that ■ the enemy still has large effectives ■ available behind the lines thousands ■ of them brought from the russian | f ron t the armies of general foch how . ever everywhere are watchful and of such strength and good morale as ■ to lead to the belief that no matter ' where the enemy chooses to oppose ! them they will be able to give a ■ splendid account of themselves 1 seemingly it is not improbable . that field marshal haig's forces will be asked again to measure their strength against the germans and that the territory near arras or in the scarpe sector or before both posit ions may be chosen by the enemy as the theatre in both these sectors the german guns again are working with the vio lence that generally presages an at tack at last accounts however the infantry had not been unleashed m the marne sector there is almost continuous artill cry activity in the region of chateau thierry where the american troops are fighting beside the french on the ether sectors of the front compara bye julet prevalk american british and french air men continue to carry out trial op erations above and behind the enemy lines fights in the air are numerous and large quantities of explosives dailyjire being dropped upon military positions far beyond the battle area american airmen have participated in the bombing assaults and returned sefely to their stations although they were heavily shelled by anti-aircraft batteries as yet the austnans have failed to start their expected offensive against the italians several fresh attacks have been made against the lines in the mountain regions but the italian vvat office announces that they were repulsed . british „ casualties reported during the week ending friday aggregated 34,1.7 of this number 4,447 men were killed ' • ' a patent has been granted for an electrically operated sand box for automobiles controlled by a button en the dash hun drive has failed paris paper claims the ger mans have been master ed on ground of their own choosing 1 paris offensive r ended for present t b daris june 14.—1n its summary of the expert opinion the havas 5 agency notes the unanimity with which the commentators have aban l doned their reserve of the past few - days and agree with m barras of - the echo de paris in his opinion that • jlhe offensive against paris is ended i for the present at least they admit thg possibility of its resumption soq^r or later and see , further hard struggles ahead but . think it probable that the heavy . fighting when it is resumed within \ a few days will be on another front the results of the offensive against paris are enumerated by m barras ' thus . a territorial gain absolutely out of proportion to the losses sustained ■ compeigne still in french possession ' the allied reserve manoeuvering forces still intact . in another article the echo de paris confidently declares that just as the germans disl not get to com peigne so they will never get to paris the enemy it points out has been mastered on ground of his own * choosing t o « 1 german attacks failed t i fifty germans under flag of trace : surrender to americans london june 14—a party of fifty 5 germans among the troops who at 1 tacked the americans northwest of 1 chateau thierry on thursday sur rendered under a flag of truce re ports the co-respondent of the daily i mail with the american army in r france ah the german attacks \ failed and they left behind them dead and wounded enemy unsuccessful in courcelles attack germans not only checked but forced back in 1 some sectors germans are fru strated in plan to get paris under big gun firs trench headquarters june 14 via reuters ottawa agency the only enemy move yesterday was an unsuccessful attack on cour celles the enemy seems to have ac cepted defeat along the rest of the line between mont didier and the oise the german advance during the hist five days has been along and east | of the matz valley they have not only been stopped west of the valley j but in some cases have been driven back beyond their original departure line progress elsewhere has been due to topographical conditions fay oring the enemy the decisive episode was the coun ter-attack on our left wing on june 11 th which frustrated the enemy at l tempt to gain a front line naa i enough to bombard paris with their 1 ordinary guns their intention on that day wai i to straighten the line on the right i wing between resson-sur-matz and ■ the mont didier-senlis railway when i he news of the successful french h counter-attack reached the german i f.rand headquarters the same evening#m the enemy opened a diversion on the ■ se.ctor between the aisne and villers i couriered forest the honor of checking the third i or if the kemmel offensive of april be ■ included the fourth enemy effort to ■ cbtain a decision belongs to the army i and the brilliant soldier who stemmed fl the first german attack in the last i week of march - hold up whole front of german offensive french prevent any further advance of foe between , noyon and mont didier i ondon june 14—(via reuier's ottawa agency the germans yesterday continued to push westward c . ■ , . near boissons where they are trying * to envelope the villers-cotterets for l es>t and squeeze out the french who remain north of the aisne they were held on the whole new front between mont didier and noy en while between the aisne and vil lers-cotterets forest they have only progressed about two miles in two days though they succeeded in effect ing a lodgement at three points north of the forest such lodgements however are of little value in this battle in which the fighting has reverted to the prim itive stage trenches are practically non-existent the combatants using natural cover creeping through bush es and cornfields and even camou fla'ging their helmets with grass an<j leaves such advance as the germans have achieved has nowhere been uniform and is only effected with the heaviest loss the latter indeed continues to be the vital factor in the strategic sit o nation together with the fact that the american weight is beginning to ' ihe correspondents dwell on the ~*- i rai cimculty or the enemy remtorcing his lrontine an d filling the gaps ia his divisions with men partially recover ed from wounds with poor troops withdrawn from the russian front and with miners and workmen hurriedly mobilized but the serious feature is the fact that the bavarian crown prince still j retains the bulk of his reserves in tact which can be used wherever he likes either in flanders or east of rheims there are thus still in j calculca^le hazards in the battle in which the germans are fighting a gainst time and the allies are suffer ing from a lack of manoeuvring room french experts who loudly praise , general foch's handling of the troops point out that he though in much le«ser degree is now enjoying the ad vantage previously possessed by the germans namely the ability to quick i ly move troops to different points as the french in the present battle oo cupy the interior of the semi-circle germans are defeated in three days battle carefully prepared attack in mont didier region was complete failure j?rench army headquarters | june 14 via reuters ottawa i agency the german attack of sunday last had been carefully pre i pared an enormous reserve of atrtiu i cry and gas shells had been accumu ! lated three weeks before hand and j had been carefully concealed in the i woods behind the front the ground had been carefully \ studied beforehand by storm units i selected to lead the attack who went i into the front line for periods of three days in order to become familiar with i the sector minenwprfer had been dragged.up to the front at night by gangs of men the attacking divisions discarded i afl baggage and equipment not abso i uitely indispensable before the bat ' tie the men began carrying only their arms and ammunition and an iron ration the objectives of the first two days as previously mapped out i were that on sunday the germans i were to reach brkot on the mont ! didier-senlis railway merry and i both sides of the compeigne road i nd on the following day were to enter compeigne the divisions employed included six which were entirely fresh the ( attack failed because in three days i of desperate fighting the enemy was < not able to gain the upper hand on ' the plateau to the west of matz two factors differentiate the bat 1 tie from the others first is was no surprise despite the enemy's ef ■] forts at concealment and secondly i instead of having out main line of j i resistance perched on a knife-edge j j six hundred feet high with a clift j like drop in the rear to the river a such as chemin dcs damrs we were t | fighting on ground which was proper ] ly organized given these essentials the successful defence of the french i infantry will undoubtedly hold the *| germans wherever they choose to 1 seize german vessels lima peru june 14.—trie perw j ian government through its imhtary | forces has taken possession of the i german vessels interned at caflao austrians launch attach rome june 14.—anstro-frfongar j ian forces yesterday launched an at tack against the italians on cady summit and monticello ridge 4he ital ! j ian war office announced today th h attack was broken tip »-^^-« — takes over opium supply shanghai june 15.—the centra chinese government has taken over j the opium combines stock of indian j'j opium the stock is 1,000 cheats valued at 6,280 varies a chest and will be paid for with six per cent bonds issued at ar xm '•" --** i see our 1 dress silks 36 inch taffetta | \ navy white & browns j 12.25 and 2.501 136 in mouseline ( | white creme sax | bro myrtle jcrimson \ i 2.70 i | 36 inch japs | | navy bra pale blue j | sajc 1.30 1 126 incnfanov stripes | | assarted 2.10 1 124 inch asstd checks i i 1-55 1 u all at a 1 value j bowring bros ltd j iillllli if illltiiiii i iittililliltliliiiltililtiilliiiiilillliiiliiililiiilliii^^nip till i k i 111111111 l i illllllllllllllllllllllllllllliillllllllilllllullllulll k hi ft •*• <■*•