The Spectator., 1914-12-15
ALLIES IN WEST
 PRESS ADVANTAGE
THEIR OFFENSIVE MEETS WITH STUBBORN RESISTANCE BY
 THE GERMANS.
REPORTS ARE CONTRADICTORY
British Naval Victory Decisive-Re. ported Austrians Will Probably
 Evacuate Belgrade.
Western Newspaper Union News Service.

| Western Newspaper Union News Service. ! London.--Both the German and | French official reports continue to evidence that the allies offensive | movement is beginning to gather i'm l petus and is meeting with stubborn | resistance from the German troops who have been left to hald the west ern line while their comrades are battling with the Russians in the East.
 "The south wing of the Russian army in West Galicia was defeated at Linarova yesterday and compelled to retreat" an official communication is- sued Sunday at Vienna says. We are pursuing the enemy. All attacks l along the rest of our battle front failed, as did tie previous ones." We have brought our offensive in the Mlawa region in Northern Poland to a successful conclusion on the whole of the front" says a statement from the Russian General Staff, issued ill Petrograd Sunday.
 The Austrian army is preparing to | eyacuate Belgrade, the capital of Ser via, according to reports received at Paris.
 Italy has reiterated her urgent de- mand for satisfaction to the Sublime Porte for the forcible removal of G. A. Richardson, the British consul at Hodeida, Arabia, from the Italian con- sulate, where he had taken refuge and for his immediate liberation. Of the five allied Austro-German columns which for some days ap- peared to be making steady progress in their invasion of Poland, three have suffered checks, according to Fridays official report from Russian head quarters. The column which was making a downward stroke from Mlawa, on the East Prussian frontier and which was reported in one dis patch from Petrograd Friday to be within 15 miles of Warsaw, was re- pulsed after an energetic offensive, and under counter attacks from the Russians was compelled to retire at some points.
 In the west both the French and the Germans claim they have made progress in the Argonne region and in Flanders. It is evident that the Germans, seeking to stop the ad- vance the allies are making in Elan ders, attempted an offensive in the vicinity of Ypres and succeeded in taking one trench from the French. The latest French official communica- tion says the trench was recaptured. Elsewhere on the front there have been artillery duels with occasional infantry attacks by first one side and then the other.
 Four German cruisers were sunk as the result of a naval battle Tues day off the Falkland islands, in the South Atlantic.
 Tie armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the protected cruiser Leipzig. three of the German varships which have been menacing British shipping, and part of the squadron which sank the British cruisers Good Hope and Monmouth in the Pacific on November l. were destroyed, while the cruisers Ores den and Nurnberg. the two other ves- sells which composed the German squadron, fled and the Nurnberg was sunk later.
 AS the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau each carried a complement of 765 men. the Leipzig 2S6 the Nurnberg 322 and the Dresden 26l, the total German loss is estimated at not far from 2.000 men. although the actual losses to the Dresden and Nurnberg cannot yet be known.
 The Nurnberg, which withdrew from the battle off the Falkland Isl ands on Tuesday and attempted to make her escape in company with the Dresden. while the British war ships under Vice Admiral Sir Freder- ick Doveton Sturdee were sinking the cruisers Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Leipzig, was hunted across the water by units of the British fleet and sunk the same day.
 The destruction of majority of the ships of the German squadron had an immediate effect on insurance rates and the government rate for insur- ance of cargoes against war risk was reduced Friday from two guineas to one and one-half guineas per cent member of Lloyds who recently has not been accepting any business re- sumed operations.