The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-05-01
FRENCH IMPROVE POSITIONS
tBy Associated Press.)


tBy Associated Press)
LONDON, May French troops
last night improved their positions in
the neighborhood of Locre, on the
Flanders front, the war office an
nounces. The British rushed German
posts in the Meteren sector and took
prisoners
The statement follows:
"A local attack made by the enemy
yesterday upon one of our posts in
the neighborhood Of St Julien was re-
pulsed by machine gun fire Posts
| held by the enemy in the Meteren
sector were rushed by our troops dur
Ing the night and few prisoners were
secured by US.
by a successful minor enterprise
| carried out last night French troops
improved the positions held by them
in the neighborhood of Locre''
No Break in Iuii.
Today's official statements reveal
no break in the comparative quiet on
all the recently active fronts in Elan
! ders and to the south.
| In local fighting in the former area
the British repulsed an attack by the
Germans near st. Julien northeast of
Ipres, and took prisoners from Ger
man posts which We're rushed in the
vicinity of Meteren The French
| troops in Flanders carried out small
| operation which was important in
that it improved their position on the
valuable holding ground about Locre
which protects the flank of Mont
Rouge.
On the Somme front the continu
ance of artillery action of some viol-
ence is reported near Viller-Breton-
neux and to the south along the Ayre.
Reforming Battered Forces.
Stunned by the severe punishment
inflicted by the British and French.
the Germans in Flanders have given
up for the moment their attempts to
gain further hill positions west of
Mont KENNEL. Meanwhile, General
Won ArnIm is reforming his battered
forces and bringing up new reserves
to hurl against the granite allied de-
| fense.
German occupation of Mont kem-
mel, although a strategic loss. has not
enabled the enemy to encroach furth-
| er into the British and French posi-
tions southwest of Ypres, nor has it
apparently brought any nearer the
evacuation of the flattened Ypres
salient. After the intense fighting of
Monday in which the Germans stroye
| desperately to enlarge their gains on
the high ground north of the Lvs.
there has been only local fighting.
| Apparently the allied commanders
are content to hold onto their present
line and TO let the Germans make
more attacks in an endeavor to drive
them back. In their disastrous at.
tacks the Germans not only failed to
gain, although larger forces than the
defenders, but were driven from some
positions they had held since the cap
| lures of Mont KENNEL last week
! Along the Flanders front and in
Plcardy strong artillery lombard
ments continue. The Germans have
been throwing great number of shells
into the French positions around 6:45
a. m. Hangard, south of the Somme,
probably in preparation for still an
other attempt to drive the French
back to the Avre. A German attack
on the Noyon sector brought the enc
my into French positions from which,
however. they were thrown out in
spirited fighting.
| American Artillery Busy
American artillery on the Picardy
front has been busy shelling enemy
/ targets, but there has been no infan-
try activity. On the Toul sector,
American aviators have brought down
a German machine, the third in three
weeks.
In Mesopotamia, General Marshall,
has advanced north-northeast of Bag
dad, captured two towns and nearly
9G0 prisoney. The Turks avoided
battle at Kifra, 100 miles northeast of
Bagdad. and fed toward Kirfuk, about
160 miles north and on the main road
to Mosul, apparently the British OBJ
jective. A retreating column was at
tackled and more than 500 prisoners
taken. British cavalry then captured
Tuzhurmantli about thirty miles
northwest of Kifra. The pursuit to-
ward Kirful continues.
Declaring that plutccratic suffrage,
giving political rights 10 wealth, is
no longer possible in our nation
Chancellor Won Hertling has informed
the lower house of the Prussian diet
that it must pass the electoral reform
TContinued On Page Eight.