St. John's Daily Star, 1916-07-04

              the st john's daily star newfoundland volume 11 3.00 per annum tuesday july 4,1916 price one gent no 154 big battle developing allies offensive precipitates a colossal struggle in the regions north and south of the somme river the ger mans endeavoring to frustrate the french effort to capture the peromi positions . i i allibs move relieves the j pressure on verixun jondon jjuly 4—the military e xpert of ithe london daily news'says that whatever intentions may be in the minds of generals joffre and haig it is clear that 4 uig scale is developing both north and south of the'somme valley a tactical push is evidently being made up the somme towards peronne which is four miles from herbescourt now in french hands and dircetly threatened by the french advance peronne is on the main fine of rail way between carnbrai and roye which runs pretty nearly parallel to the front held by the germans in this locality and must be their principal line of lat eral communication • we only heed look at the line repre senting the position of the opposing forces on the map to realize the signi ficance of this advance up the somme the allies must be numerically sup erior to the germans along the front and they evidently have established an equality if not preponderance of artill cry strengtp meanwhile there are in dications that pressure has already been taken off verdun ft ft fa ft a number of trouteri went out by this morning's train to spend a couple of days fishing at the favorite resorts mmm the regular excursion trains go out tomorrow afternoon ] more captures made by french on the somme chapitre wood and feuilleres village are taken—second hun line pierced daris july 4—french advancing the 1 east of aereaucourt wood have i cpalured chapitre wood and the vill ! age of feuilleres further to the south assevillcrs was taken by an mi i fantry assault acording to an official statement issued by the war office ; tonight ouih of assevillers the french i have taken the second line of the ger | man entrenchments as far as the oui ! skirts and have advanced ! beyond the german line where they | have captured the villages of bruscourt \ and flaucourt the total advance in this section was five kilometres russians extend their offensive ' berlin july 3.—the russians have launched an attack against the army iof prince leopold on the central sec i lion of the eastern front the official report to-day says that the russians arc succeeding in advancing at one point but;otherwise were forced to re treat with heavy losses m%&f4 mmm austrian attempt at offensive fails petr6grad july 3 the <• austrians . have taken the offensive in formidable force on the eastern front but have been repulsed with heavy losses the war office announced to-day in various sectors the russians have taken a total of more than 2,400 pris oners and 12 machine guns i mmmmmmm the schooner belle has left rurgeo i for oporto with 1863 qtls fish continued progress british maintain all positions captured take la baobclle and are fighting with success bund oviilcrs north of fricourt—french also pushing their advance gain big successes newly-invented mortar of allies very effective jondon july 4.—today's news again tells of the continued pro gress of the anglo-french offensive heavy fighting is proceeding along the line the british maintain all their positions south of the ancre river where the battle still rages they have captured laßoisclle gar rison which surrendered and are fight ing successfully around ovillerec north of fricourt fhe british people learned for the first time tonight that the famouc french general foch who has won a great reputation during the course of the war is directing operations south of the somme river this has given increased confidence in the result oi the allied offensive french captures the french captured herbccourt and asscvillers and have made other substantial gains taking additional prisoners and heavy guns thus making great progress in the direction of the important german junction of per onne which is only a little over three miles distant from their advance at herbccourt a non-committal character german official issued today is considered by london a virtual confirmation of the success of the anglo-french opera tions the germans admit the divi sions of their forces abutting on both banks of the somme which were par tially withdrawn on saturday have been brought back to the second line no data is yet forthcoming from fath er side as to the casualties suffered according to the german communica tion the anglo-french losses were ex traordinarily heavy according to un official british reports however the british casualties were less than had been expected tremendous bombardment all reports emphasise the tremend ous nature of the british bombard ment the gunners worked so inces santly as almost to fall asleep at their guns and when there was a slight re cess in the firing they slept easily amid the thunders of battle great importance attached to a iewly-invented mortar which plays havoc with the german trenches ' air craft are taking an important role in the operations thus far the new offensive appears to have had little influence on the bat tle around verdun and the germans are still showing undiminished vigor in the meuse region while the french are steadily resisting lloyd-george & derby to the war ministry london july 4—lt will be shortly announced that lloyd-george is to be appointed secretary of state for war with lord derby as under-secretary for war replacing mr tennant who may go to the bureau of agriculture it is understood that lloyd-george is to have some extension powers but he will sever his connection with the min istry of munitions and selection of an appointee to the latter office has not yet been made french led by gen foch at v ack"ng the germans south of the somme in co-operation with the british london hears with delight 12,000 prisoners taken in offensive to date ondon july 4.—under command of the dashing general foch the french trcops which are cooperating with the british in the great offensive in the somme river region have made notable gains in the d'rection of pe ronnc one of the nicsi important stra tal points they have captured court foirllerres and flancourt irthcr scuh the french infantry led and occupied f die wed ihis up by carrying the secons line of german entrenchments as far as the outskirts of estrcs then came th ccapturc of buccourt and flancourt scmeth d over three miles was thus gained which added to previous gains gives the french a clear advance of about six miles the furthest point be ing within three fn les oi peronne british advancing meanwhile the moving more slowly v but over a longer front have captured la boisellc where th fight ing for the past two days has been of the fiercest character the british also report substantial progress in seme places and the re pulse of manly counter-attacks made by the germans the british troops however have been forced back from some positions which they had taken early on monday morning and it is evident the german artillery fire has become much heavier than during the earlier stages of the battle prisoners taken by the british so far number 4,300 while the french have captured 8,000 or more war materials taken by the french includes seven batteries three large calibre and many machine guns oth er batteries and casemates also fell in to the hands of the french beyond the withdrawal of a division from this flront line of trenches the german official makes a mere refer ence to the battle now progressing verdun operations are apparently slackening although at certain points a heavy bombardment is carried out by the artillery the infantry are resting aerial activity is increasing in connection with the battle of the somme hundreds of machines are be ing engaged reconoitering and direct ing guns and fighting in three days j engagements the british . lost fifteen heavy fighting continues on many parts of the russian front the italian offensive continues with out cessation both artillery and in fantry being employed in strong force against the austrians ik ik ik ik settlement pleases dublin july 3—the national dircc tory of the united irish league me to-day with john redmond presiding and agreed to accept the proposal made by david lloyd george for th solution of the irish'question as the directory is representative of all ireland it is not considered nece sary to hold a convention of the unite irish league there were only tw dissenting members of the largest meet general foch take strong hun works allies find german lines of defence wonderfully fortified but maintain their progress nevcrlhalecs—artil lery bombardments blast a way through the strongest fortifica tions anglo-french supplies ofmunitions prodigious daris july 3.â���”the desperatencss of the struggle along»the front of the allied offensive in northern france s shown by the progress made through what the official bulletins describe as the line this designation docs not re fer to a single but the important first position of defences from a half mile to a mile deep comprising an intricate system of trenches called labyrinths which is n connected with advanced posts heavily armored with concrete and with machine guns installed while in the trenches themselves are arm ored turrets protecting other machine 3uns in the second and third general defensive works of the germans on the western front equally important and similarly in tricate are all three lines which must be pursued by the allies before their desire to force the germans to battle in the open can be realized in the battle of arras and cham pagne the french attacked the second line without sufficient artillery prepara tion the error was not repeated in the present case as the accumulation of munitions behind the allied front is prodigious while the german stock is apparently less plentiful as their re ply is in the proportion of one shot for five this leads to the impression among observers that their extended front is iot as well supplied or manned as in previous battles fighting about verdun centres chiefly upon damloup works . which have changed hands twice within the past twenty-four hours the germans first taking them and the french re capturing them as a result of desperate counter-attacks berlin people panic stricken steady advance of the allies throws a scar 3 inlo the huns york july 3.—a despatch from zurich to the news agency here says a panic has been produced in berlin by the steady advance of the allies in france according to informa tion received today the newspapers arc urging the peo ple to be calm but at the same time they print vigorous protests against the use of asphyxiating gas by the british which is said to be more dead ly than that employed by the ger mans the berlin war ofice reports to-day say that the continuation of the french and british drive in both sides of the somme has not gained and advantage for the allies north of the river but south of the somme the germans with drew their division to the second posi tions mmmmmmm world's wealthiest woman passes away new york july 3.—mrs hettie green known as the world's wealthi est woman 80 years old died here to day she is said to be worth close on a hundred million dollars mmmmmmm tomorrow is a general holiday and many will go out of town mmm a wire was received from lamaline this morning that squid had made their appearance there codfish are reported plentiful — 1 makes huns very anxious german newspapers give great deal ,„ of space to allies offensive in the west and while seeking to en courage the confidence of the peo ple admits the outlook is a very grave one work of great britain is given much praise amsterdam july 4.—the begin ning of the anglo-french offensive is announced by the german press un der heavy headlines from he great champagne battle last autumn says the cologne ga zette we know the imposing prepara tions with which the french staff in troduced such enterprises we can be certain that on the enemy's side noth ing will be lacking as regards tech nical means of piercing our lines for seven days the artillery fire poured over our trenches and our brave troops must have greeted it as a deliverance when last the enemy storming columns came on we should not be deceived by the fact that the enemy reports already speak of great successes only within the next few days will it be impossible l:o ascertain how far the general attack has brought the enemy the cologne yolks zeitung refers to the difficulty of holding the foremost geranm trenches in the face of the en ormous energy of the attack but notes lhe attacking forces have not succeed ed in piercing the german front although germany confronts the coming battle confidence says the paper nevertheless the movement is without doubt fraught with signifi cance and is perhaps decisive great britain it adds how for the continued on page 2 the best rubber boots ever worn is the brown hipress so say every fisher man who has ever worn them i v i last longer and abso lutely overcome every weakness of the old style black rubber boots we have just received 2000 pairs of this famous boot every pair guaranteed remember the brand i the goodrich bro wnhippress bowring brothers limited j great american holiday this the day that no ameri j an small boy is complete un j less scorched or crisped i | the day of waving flags and | raving orators j the day americans shoot jj ii themselves full of tetanus or || j blow their fingers off and their || eyes out to show their inde j || pendence j a day more deadly and j || glorious than a mad housewife j || with a rolling pin i an ideal day to be deaf dumb blind and buried in a j n l e - the fourth of july the day america celebrates read the daily star q knowling dry goods and showroom department we have just received and opened the following new goods women's and children's raincoats corsets regular and extra large sizes middy suits fit all adas hosiery all colors and makes amdapolan nainsoo organdie and robe muslins special offering all colors wonderful values in j 4 inch wide poplin 45c , her yard back and side combs quilts . \ blouses flannelettes we are showing one of the largest and best selected stocks of ladies summer underwear in every style size quality and weight of vests pants and combin ations we also draw attention to our silk and velvet department we . now have a large and well selected stock amongst the new arrivals is corded velveteen in saxe brown navy 65c f per yard i