Page
THE WAR.
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16cm, "1918,
STRAIGHTENING THE SAINT
MIHIEL SALIENT:
01
BRILLIANT ACHIEVEMENT OF AMERICAN TROOPS.
ན
1.
THIRT EN MILLION AMERICANS. ENROLLED FOR WAR SERVICE.
PRIME MINISTER'S MANCHESTER SPEECH,
MORE GERMAN PEACE FEELERS:
"THE DEATH RATTLE OF GERMAN DESPOTISM.'"
Franco-Belgian Front.
(THROUGH REUTER'S AGENCY.)
FRENCH FRONT.
FURTHER AMERICAN SUCCESS
ROUND ST. MIHIEL
LONPUN, September 14th.
An Amerinn official statement says: In the St. Mihiel sector we achieved fur ther successes, The junction of our troops ¦ advancing from the south of the sector
with those advancing from the West has given us possession of the whole salient to points twelve miles north-east of St. Mihiel, and has resulted in the capture of mang prisoners who had been forced back by our stendy advance.
J
The enemy is retiring and is destroying large quantities of materials as he goes."
The number of prisoners has risen to
13,300.
Der line now includes Herbonville, Thillot. Huttonville. St. Bennit. Jaulny, Thinucourt and Vieville.
SAINT MIHIFL' INTACT.
PARIS, September 14th, Asemi-official statement says:-The proof that the Germans did not intend to evacuate the Saint Mihiel salient is that they are not following their usual practice of removing the able-bodied population apd destroying the towns. The Freach and American attack was so swift that we found Sain Mihil intact, and had the happiness of seeing the enthusiastic inhabitants run out to welcome them.
The important towns of Verdun, Com- mercy. Toul and Nancy are no longer menared, and it will be surprising if the victory has not further important conse
quences
SALIENT IN FAIR WAY TO BE ELIMINATED.
LONDON, September 13th. 11.45 p.m. Reuter's Correspondent as.. American Headquarters, telegraphing last evering, states:-The Saint Mihiel salient created by the Germans at considerable cost is in a fair way to be eliminated. As far as the operations have gone a more complete success could hardly have been obtained, Double objectives had been laid down for days, and the advance reached was well in advance of the e expected hour,
||
A good deal of our bre was directed at. Thiaucourt, the first important town in the advance. A tremendous explosion was observed there, and the town was in flames shortly after.
AMERICANS GREAT VICTORY AT
SAINT MIHIEL
LONDON, September 14th.. There is great enthusiasm in Britain over the
successes of the Americans'
AMERICANS' COMMUNICATION
North of this wehold, the,
German french lines immediately west of Auchy- Lez-La-Busme, atd are pressing forward' into the village.
We captured a few prisoners in the neighbourhood of Me-liebeke Lake. ·
* SYSTEM PERFECTED.
Lospos. September 14th.. The Times correspondent at the Ameri- can Headquarters states that the provision- of the first day's operations at Saint Sibiel was greatly helped by the perfect * GALLANT BRITONS ALL! comuniunication systętu which" the Ameri
LONDON, September 13th. can's evolved and were trying for the first Sir Douglas Haik, in a supplementary The various Commands conversed despatch" covering "the Battles of the on the telephone as easily as busin as'inen | Somme which commenced on August 8th, talking in New York, and, although the mention the gallant exploits of some | telephone operators in the front line were men, the Central Exchanges were worked by picked women operators from New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia IMPORTANT RAILWAY CAPTURED.
Cl
LONDON, September 13th.
so other Divisions including the Fourth, which broke the enemy's attack on the north bank of the Scarpe' on March 29th, and, in face of strong resistance, on September 2nd, carried the defences of the Drocnart Queant line.
The Thirty Second Division, after heavy fighting at Dammery on August
Naval Activities.
(THROUGH RAUTER'8 AGENCY.]
SPANISH STEAMER
TORPEDOED..
PARIS, September 14th. A submarine shelled and torpedoed another Spanish steamer off the Canary Islands.
General
..(THROUGH REUTEM'S AGENCY) THE ALLIES AND THE NEAR EAST
LONDON, September 4th.
The Daily Telegraph, referring to the presentation of addresses from the Armenian, Syrian and Zionist conmani. ties in Manchester to Mr. Lloyd George, says that the situation in which Grant Britain stands towards these, national
elements in the Near East and the Tur
BERLIN SOCIALISTS REQUEST PEACE DISCUSSIONS.
AMSTERDAM, September 14th. The Rheinische Westfaelische Zeitung [states that the Independent, Socialists introduced a motion at a meeting of the Berlin City Council requesting the initia tion of peace discussions, owing to the daily increasing distress among the Berlin population consequent upon malnutrition and the reduction of the people's entire standard of living and increasing eri- minality and death-rate."
PRIME MINISTER STRICKEN
WITH INFLUENZA.
LONDON, September 14th. Mr. Lloyd George, has an' attack of influenza. His tenperaturi 3 high
en enacelled,
The appointments for the tour have
AFFAIRS IN RUSSIA. DESPERATE SITUATION IN
RUSSIA.
It is, expected that the present total of prisoners at St. Mihiel will be largely incrchsed.
the The line runs from Pagny on Mowelle, which is in enemy hands, thence in a straight line towards the east to Hutionville, and along the foot of the Anatralians' advance across the Somme. facts in Palestine and Mesopotamia and quarters that the situation in Russia is
Meuse heights.
Our line has consequently been shortened 'from 40 th under 20 miles. The operation was purely lacal and has been very success ful. All our objectives were attained.
The enemy left for good the railway from Thiaucourt to St. Mihiel, which is now in our hands. Most of the villages The captured are not damaged.
AIRMEN JOIN IN THE AMERICAN
at Saint Mihiel. This was made evident by the beflagging of Liverpool yesterday on the arrival of American troops, streets were lined with cheering crowds,
ATTACK.
LONDON, September "Lith.
The "Air Ministry states:-In conjunc tion with the Americar attack we, on the night of September 12th, heavily bombed. the railways at Metz-Sablon and Cour- celles with good results.
10th and 11th, captured -Herleville on August 23rd, Vermandovillers on August 27th and successfully participated in the
Field-Marshal Hajg states that in his account, the doings of these different English, Senttish and Welsh Divisions are gecessarily brief and incomplète, and he concludes: On the same battl-felds on which they withstand the heaviest asanlt the British Army ever faced, all have fought side by side with the splendid divisions from Australiä, Canada and New Zealand with a courage, gallantry and enterprise only equalled by their
Success.
FOCH'S OFFENSIVE UPSETS
kish question as a whole is one of the cardinal issues of the war.
In insisting upon the accomplished
LONDON, September 14th. Renter's Agency learns from official
desperate.
The Bolshevik Government is breaking up.
in proclaiming the other objects of the Near Eastern policy, such as the securing of liberty and justice for the Armenian ruce, we are taking up an attitude from which it is morally impossible to depars. After speaking of the benefits which British rule his conferred upon Palestine and Mesopotamia, the Daily Telegraph declares that Germany's demand that these countries be returned leneath the rule of the Turk is a demand which no man in the Allied nations could tolerate."| for the delusion of the Allies.
It is now known that Lenin and Trotsky, prepared, a month ago, for their escape to Switzerland, commandeering for the journey a considerable quantity of gold for their personal use.
LORD FRENCH'S TRIBUTË
TO INDIAN SOLDIERS
The papers in London give unstinted admiration to the American victory, which is described as one of the greatest Allied coups in the war. The wresting in a single blow of the vantage ground' held by" the Germans for four years, proving the tremendous force of the United States. is beginning, to tell earlier than aat searchlights, and bombed Metz-Sablon and says:-A battalion of the Party Sixth with the forthcoming "
cipated.
We machine-gunned Metz station 'and
other railway junctions and'transport on September 13th, dropping tens of bombs
We destroyed with good results. hostile machine, Two British machines are missing.
one
It is pointed out that nothing is more likely to open the eyes of the German nation to the overwhelming and decisive character of the new factor energing in the war than the remarkable triumph. AMERICANS CHIVALROUS ACTION. almost instantly attained, by the powerful
PARIS, September 14th.. Interviews with French and American American Army directed by an American General.
wounded soldiers show that the latter dis- played magnificent dash. Some regiments assaulted singing the Marcillaire, nad with Bags flying. The principal German
THE KAISER'S DEATH-RATTLE
.OF DESPOTISM.”
GERMAN SCHEMES.
LONDON, September 13th, Reuter's correspontlent at the British Headquarters, stelegraphing this evening
ex-
LONDON, September 15th. Lord French in the course of a letter to Princess Sohpia Dulcep in connection
India Day Infantry Regiment, which gained the presses is high appreciation of the ame of the "Lions of Cambrai " broke services of India's fighters on the West during our advance recently across Ban-Front in 1914 and 1915. || terre and fled to Nesle, where they in- dulged in looting after which the
remnants straggled away.
A captured map shows that the attack against our First Army Front was being organised when Marshal Foch's stroke
per the enemy schemes. It is dated
July 10th.
He says:-When the Indians troops. first arrived the situation was xo'drastic
that it was necessary to call upon them immediately to reinforce the. fighting front and to help stein the German thrust. Their Sne fighting qualities, tenacity and endurince were well mani- fested during the first battle of Ypres before they had been able to completely
مری
Furthermore, the latest information from Germany shows that a great demo- eratte peace campaign is being prepared
DISASTROUS EXPLOSION AT-
VORONEJ,"
AMSTERDAM. September 14th.
A message from Kieff states that an explosion at Vorenej destroyed six trains. the station, and other buildings. Over 350 persons were killed. Fifteen hundred persons have been arrested in connection with the affair,
OBITUARY.
LORD NICHOLSON.
LONDON, September 14th The death is announeed of Field-Mar- shal Lord Nicholson.
PRICE OF AMERICAN, RAW- COTTON..
WASHINGTON, September 14th. President Wilson announces that the War Industries Board Committee will
strongholds were carried at the point of On the Cambrai front we are maintain reorganise after their voyage from India, recommend basic prices for standard
ing all our gains,
GERMAN ATTACKS REPULSED.
?",
LONDON, September 14th.
Reute's
British Correspondeat at Headquarters, telegraphing to-day states:
In this connection the papers are un-
the bayonet, after a desperate struggle. animous in describing von Payer's penco
An officer relates how a French detach- terms as the evidence that Germany has ment got into difficulties in a wood, upon already lost her illusion of a decisive which the Americans, without being order- victory, and ridiculing the Kaiser's Essened to do so, spontaneously dashed for- speech, which Mr. A. G. Gardiner in the ward, surrounded the wood and killed all/ The enemy has been active in the Cambrai i
Daily News describes as the death rattle of despotism and the confession that Germany is beaten." Mr. Gardiner declares that peace on the lines of von layer's proposals would be a crime.
The papers are confident that the American victory at Saint Mihiel will hasten the disappearance of the illusion that Germany can retain ber Eastern con- quests.
"It is believed in Paris that the success at Saint Mihiel is much greater than is The evidence of prisoners confrms the disclosed in the bald official communiqués belief that, a general retirement to the Its results will greatly modify the war Hindenburg Line is contemplated, but front. The Americans here struck the That is his intention the enemy lost a very heart and nerve centre of the Ger surprising number of men in carrying it man Front.
out.
The attack was timed from the southern side at five o'clock, am., and after a four hours' hombardment the troops started in mist and rain Heavy rainstorms occur. red at intervals, making the progress of heavy gure and transport difficult.
IMPORTANCE OF THE VICTORY..
Simultaneously the organisation of the Hindenburg and other lines in this salient has been crowded with fortifications.
the enemy machine-gunners at their posts EXTENSION OF AMERICAN ATTACK FORESHADOWED.
PARIS, September 14th. The leading military writers foreshadow the extension of the American attack.
arén.
The manner in which ther "acquitted themselves showed the excellence of their previous training for war. In all the subsequent battles of,1914 and 1915 they' took a prominent part and behaved with the utmost gallantry.
grades of raw cotton only if investigation convinces it that the fixing of prices is necessary.
V
"FOR VALOUR.”
LONDON, September 14th. I have no hesitation in saying that they Cross has been awarded to Lieut. Harold The Gazette nocunces that the Victoria splendidly upheld the glorious fighting Auten, Naval Reserve, for unstated ser- traditions, of the Indian Army. This vices in action with enemy submarines.
(Continued on Page 6.).
in his attack yesterday evening east of Trescault, under cover of a heavy
cord is all the more honourable when it harrage, the few Germans who gained a
be remembered that they were suddenly footing in our posts were easily dealt despatched from a hot climate in almost with. Ahombing, attack, covered by the worst season of the year to face the fammenwerfer between Gouzeaucourt rigours of a western winter. It will
Wood" and the village caused our "troops always be a source of pride and happiness. M. Bidony in Le Journal, says that the battle has only begun."
to fall back to the support trench to to me that I have been associated in the GERMANS BOMBARDING RHEIMS escape the liquid fire. Our artillery 'then field with these gallant troops.
gave the enemy a bad time. We withdrew CATHEDRAL.
from some advanced posts at La Vergier HERR ERZBERGER'SCHANGED to give a clear field of fire to the gunners to deal with the infantry attack which did not make headway...
The Germans are heavily bombardips Rheims, concentrating against the cathe. dral, the northern tower of which threatens to fill.
GERMAN COUNTER-ATTACKS
REPULSED.
PARIS, September 14th- A communiqué states :-During the day we made progress between Savy and the st. Quentin-Han road.
South of the Ailette we extended our positions north of Montheuil-la-Fosse.
Two German counter-attacks were re- General Hindenburg recently inspected pulsed in the region of Laffaux at Moisy
Farm. the region, thus proving that the German THIAUCOURT IN FLAMES. Though the weather is most inconveni-expected an attack on one of the essential
pivots of their front."
ent it is not likely to influence the com-
plete execution of the objectives of the The Americans are breaking into the present operations, which are of an web of railways which are very important extremely limited nature. For twelve to the Germans for maneuvring, and by miles the main southern attack extended threatening these strategic lines and the „enstward past Montsce, a great natural | Briey iron field they are forcing the enemy - fortress 1,200 foot high, dominating this to concentrate for a defence. of what may prove his "Achilles' Heel," also opening. section practically to Pantamousson.
The Germans were busy getting their the way for further large American gling away after the bombardment, and attacks.
they offered very weak support to their infantry,
It is stated in Paris that the first French officer to enter the first town
BRITISH FRONT.
FIGHTING ROUND LA BASSEE...
LONDON, September 13th, 11.45 pr
Yermand-Jeancourt sector, north-west Sir Douglas Haig states: In the
of St. Quentin, we gained ground in con- tact with the enemy's advanced, detach. ments and took prisoners.
South-west of La Bassen our progress continued, in spite of machine-gun opposition. We took possession of a fosse on the right of Debethune and an adjoin ́ing'slag-heap which is called the "dump'”
BELGIAN ACTIVITY NEAR -
NIEUPORT...
LONDON, September 14th A Belgian communiqué: states-At night time, the enemy violently bombard ed 'our advanced works east of Nieuport and temporarily penetrated our observa tion posts north west of St. George's.
After violent artillery firing, the enemy reoccupied the line of outposts we recent. ly captured south-east of Draaibank, but wa reconquered all the posts, despite vigorous "reactions capturing fifty pri
soner
The Balkans.
{THROUGH REUTEE'S LORNOT.]
ENEMY ATTACK ́(BRITISH POSITIONS.
Paris, September 14th.
A French Eastern communiqué states: There was lively artillery and patrol activity at numerous points. The enemy, west of the Valdar, after a violent bom-
VIEWS.
AMSTERDAM, September 14th. Herr Erzberger, interviewed by the Arešt, spoke optimistically of an early peace. He dwelt on the converted views of a large section of the pro-war par He cited the fact that the pawn theory recently enunciated in regard to Belgium is no longer a leading political thought and asserted that the unreserved return of Belgium is the natural pre- requisite of peace.
He contended that Bolshevism will break out throughout the world if the war lesta much longer. He favoured the idea of a league of nations and disarma. ment after the war,
GERMAN COMMENT ON VON PAYER'S SPEECH:
AMSTERDAM, September 14th. Commenting upon the speech of von Fayer, the Fische Zeitung says it is a tacit introduction to the forthcom ing inter-Party conferences.
The Berliner Tageblatt says it is the first time the Government has uttered an unmistakable domestic programme capable of clearing up the situation."⠀⠀
The Deutsche Tager Zeitung says the
stoat-heartedness, especially, the pamages about peace and indemnities.
FRENCH TREASON TRIALS. ITALIAN JOURNALIST CHARGED.
The Italian journalist, Chesare Hanau, who was the Paris correspondent for several Italian papers since 1900, was called to take his trial recently before the Permanent Third Court-Martial, en the charge of intelligence with the enemy. In addition to his Paris correspondence, Hanau founded an office of information at Modane, in partnership with another
journalist, named Marino. The paiz auc- ceeded in getting their services accepted by several French and Italian journals
Hanau is described by the prosecution as spendthrift, always in want of mones. lg 1014 he made the acquaintance of the fumous Cavalierė Cavallial, the €x-" Italian deputy and accomplice of Bolo Pasha. Condemned to death, with Bolo, although he had left France, Cavallini was shown to be the evil spirit of Abbas Hilmi, the ex-Khedive, and active agent of the Wilhelmstrasse, and especially Von Jagow. He proposed to Hanau & Fress: campaign in favour of the dethroned Abbas Hilmi, praising the loyalty of the latter towards the Ententer Hann set to work. The following are the principal. alleged financial operations of the Italian journalist in connection with the treason affairs: He made several journeys to Switzerland, which he tried to dissimulate afterwards ia an attempt to obliterate the visas
bis pass port. He met Yussuf Saddik Pashu and Mohammed Yaghea at Lausanne, and aucceeded in baving copy inserted in the Italian Press and in certain French pro- vincial papers favourable to Abbas Hilmi. Hanau assured the editors with whom he he acted in the name of a financial syn- dealt in these money arrangements that
dicate interested in the reconciliation of alleged to have pocketed at first 50,000!., the ex-Khedive with England. Hanau is
funda transferred by the Dresdner Bank to a Swiss bank. · · It is surmised that be obtained more.
от
Our aeroplanes did splendid work liberated by the Americans' was M. Cand forms an important local feature bardment, attacked the new British posi speech is bound to be a blow to Germany's and afterwards 17,000f, drawn on the
swooping down on the retiring infantry, driving every German in the place from the air, and bringing down in Bames, several balloots.
menrenu's son. This town was stubbornly defended by two divisions, few of whom
were alive when the Americans entered.
giving a wide observation over the surtions, but were repulsed, with heavy rounding country.
losses, and leaving prisoners.