Ominous calm

New German plans ?

British activity in Persian Gulf

Yesterday was particularly quiet and there was nothing to report, thus reads the French official report issued last night. This may mean either of two things.

Maybe the Germans are exhausted or, while their artillery continues to thunder, they are hatching plans for a new offensive, a concentration perhaps on a new point.

The allies, however, have held their own so far and may be counted on to encounter any move the enemy may make.

Some day we shall hear of something even better than magnificent defence but General Joffre, it is imagined, does not mean to move until he is assured of success. Men and still more men are required and it is likely that weeks will pass before the Anglo-French forces are at the required strength.

Possibly, too, the scheme which will be put into operation might have been carried out earlier had not the Germans either accidentally, or as the result of their acute military insight, made dispositions to avert it.

Their strategy has undergone several sudden and, to the mere onlooker, inexplicable changes, but the fact remains that their new dispositions including their coastal campaign have forced corresponding changes in the plans of the allies.

New moves and new counter-moves may indeed be expected for some time until Generals Joffre and French have at their command armies great enough to obviate all difficulties and to carry out the supreme purpose.

A more prosaic view of the inaction of yesterday may be that the heavy state of the ground has rendered it next to impossible to move heavy masses of troops.

An incident selected for mention concerns the warfare that has raged round a village near Compiegne where a determined effort was made by the Germans to recapture the place which they lost a few days ago. They succeeded in storming the outer trenches but thanks to the work of the Algerians the ground was recovered, the enemy being driven back with heavy loss.

A piece of excellent news came to hand last night.

The Goeben, the German battle cruiser which passed into the Turkish navy after her escape, has been badly damaged in an engagement with a division of the Russian Black Sea fleet. The captain daringly entered and successfully navigated an unchartered and dangerous strait.

The British troops operating in the Persian gulf have defeated a Turkish force of over 8,000-strong after an advance over open country.

The action has developed during the last few days in two regions of the front between the Vistula and the Warta rivers. The battles have assumed an extremely desperate character.

In East Prussia our troops are attacking elaborately constructed and fiercely defended positions to the east of Angerburg.

The German trenches are defended by triple vertical lines of wire entanglements. We have captured 19 guns, six machine guns and a searchlight and taken several hundred prisoners.