The midland journal., 1917-05-04

ly completed and France and Italy and
Russia will get their share soon. Most
of the money, it is understood will be
expended in the United States.
The commissioners agreed that,
next to supplying money, America
could give the best help by continuing
to furnish food and by finding the YES
sells for it's transport to Europe, and
they were pleased with the plans for
building great fleet of wooden ships.
General Joffre, however, expressed the
hope that in the near future large
contingent Of American troops would
be on the fighting line under the Stars
and Stripes, holding that the moral
effect of that would be tremendous.
All of the commissioners concurred
in the statement that they were here
not to attempt to dictate to our, gov
ernment, but to advise and assist. it
to the best Of their ability and with
their wealth of experience.
President Wilson, in a conference
with Mr.. Balfour, voluntarily gave as
surances that the United States will
fight until 1t achieves victory, and
thereupon the head Of the British mis-
sion declared that the entente allies
would seek no treaty of alliance, no
signature of the entente pledge not to
make separate peace with Germany.
Germans Resist Desperately.
"This is the last and deciding push,
for we soon shall be able to hold out
no longer" reads the diary of Ger
man officer who was captured last
Monday, and that seems to be the
opinion Of the German commander in
chief, judging by the desperate opposi-
ton he is putting up against the drive
Of the allies in northern France. Re-
Stunning their part of the offensive at
the beginning of the week, the British
have made considerable progress, es-
pecially along the roads from Arras
and Bapaume to Cambria. In the semi
open fighting their heavy howitzers
were of little use, but their field guns
and machine guns were handled with
wonderful skill and rapidity and the
Germans suffered enormously. Won
Hindenburg threw his reserves into
the battle with a prodigality that as
tonished his adversaries, and the Teu-
tons gave ground slowly and made re-
peated and fierce counter-attacks,
which, however, were Of little avail
and left the ground covered with their
slain. The German line, thanks to
the astounding numbers of men Won
Hindenburg has been able to bring up,
is still unbroken, but it Is badly bat
tered and is being pushed back FUR
ther and further toward the frontier.
The superiority of the British in the
air was demonstrated on Monday in
the most spectacular manner. The
men of the Royal Flying corps met the
air suuadrons Of the Germans at an
altitude of $4,000 feet and put them
to rout, destroying 40 Of their air
planes, with the loss Of but two Of
their own machines. The young Brit
ish pilots then carried out series Of
daring bombing raids.
The French devoted much of the
week to destructive artillery fire In
preparation for their next part In the
"see-saw" that is being carried on with
such skillful cooperation by Haig and
Nivelle, and by Thursday their infan-
try was again in action.
On the Italian, Macedonian and Rou-
manian fronts little Of moment has
taken place. In Mesopotamia the
British are still advancing, but the ex-
pedition from Egypt that is moving up
through Palestine has found the re-
enforced Turkish forces holding
strongly intrenched position extending
from GAIA toward Beersheba. Portu-
gal, having decided to take a more
active part in the conflict in Europe,
has sent large contingent of troops
to northern France.
There has been some stirring activ-
ity recently in the neighborhood of
the Straits of Dover. Two British de-
stroyers encountered a fiotilla of six
German destroyers and after a furious
combat put the foe to rout. The Ger
man boats were rammed and torpe-
doed and raked by gunfire and at least
two of them were sunk. The British
vessels suffered severely but were able
to return to port.
Wednesday morning a German de-
stroyer f1otilla bombarded Dunkirk
but was driven off by the coast bat
teries and the allied patrol boats. One
French torpedo boat was sunk.
Russian Situation Dangerous.
The course of events in Russia is
being watched with renewed anxiety.