After six months

German failure everywhere

A disastrous week

Losses in three days 20,000

Russia’s steady progress

The story published yesterday as to the sinking of a battle cruiser proves to be baseless.

It is not always easy to sort the wheat from the chaff and we passed this message on as we received it but with a footnote advising caution.

The official report at Paris yesterday was much more of a human document, if the phrase may be employed, than the kind of document to which we have become accustomed.

It is quite evident that in the western area of war a great effort had been planned but it did not turn in the enemy’s advantage with all the German attacks repulsed and all the French attacks making progress.

Here and there along the way the allies have had to give way but in most cases the lost ground has been recovered and the German losses have been out of all proportion for their advantage gained.

According to the number of dead found on the front from Flanders to the Vosges the French account estimates that German losses over three days exceed 20,000 men.

A large paragraph is devoted to fighting in the region of Craonne where success has been claimed by the Germans, considerable loss is the message from Paris, 500 men killed, wounded or missing in two days.

According to the French account the disputed ground has been regained by counter attacks but the German version is that another 500 metres of trenches were gained.

On the eastern front extending from East Prussia to the Bukovina the contending armies continue to show considerable activity. In East Prussia fighting is proceeding and in Northern Poland guards advancing in the direction of Skempe are harrying the German rearguards. On the left bank of the Vistula there is no important change in the situation.

The Austrians are making strenuous efforts to stem the Russian advance in Central Galicia and claim to have achieved important success in the Carpathians. The latest Russian communique does not admit any change in the situation.

The affair at the east of the Suez Canal is of no great importance other than as an indication of the proximity of the main Turkish army and we need not expect any serious fighting for a week or two.

We have a force equal at any rate to the three army corps that the Turks have put in the field and one authority has remarked that the only Turks that will make their way into Egypt will be as prisoners of war!