German debacle

Russian reticence explained

Fighting in Flanders

Allies over the Yser

Things have gone very well this week. In the news from the front and in the speeches at home, there is a plain and unaffected hopefulness. There can be no doubt that the Russians have achieved a success on a scale so great that the whole future of the war will be affected.

Military authorities confidently hope that the disaster to Germany will prove very much greater than is already foreshadowed.

As the days go by the confidence of those who know suffers no diminution nor does their determination to keep back partial successes until the attainment of the final great success.

It is merely a matter of time and the only question is whether any part of the German forces will succeed in making their escape, and if so, how many? The bulk of the enemy is irrevocably lost in the best event.

From Flanders comes the intelligence that the Germans have been reinforced by 120,000 men and 26 guns but the new offensive has apparently not yet developed.

On the other hand it is evident from official communiques that the allies are in many places entrenched in considerable force beyond the Yser and attacks on bridge heads south of Dixmude have is been easily repulsed.

There has been further fighting in the Argonne mostly of a detailed character with inconsiderable forces and the French have re occupied some trenches though the Germans foolishly say that they have made some progress.

The visit to Rheims of journalists of neutral states was the ill-advised moment selected by the Germans to renew their bombardment of that city.

Mr Lloyd George in the House of Commons yesterday stated that the government had raised the largest loan in the history of the world. The £350,000,000 asked for had been over subscribed.

A confident note was struck in the House of Commons by Mr Churchill in a review of the work of the navy.

He showed that the losses of the enemy having regard to relative naval strength had been greater than our and in view of the enormous delivery of cruisers rapidly approaching completion and of the speed of our ship building, declared that we could lose a couple of Dreadnoughts every month for a year without any loss accruing to the enemy, and yet be in approximately as good a position of superiority as we were at the outbreak of the war.

The activity of the German submarines is again illustrated by the sinking of the trading steamers in the English Channel.