MISCELLANEOUS
The Manchester Guardian announced on May 18 that the war treaty between England, France, Italy, and Russia, which embodied Italy's terms of entering the war, and which was published by the Bolshevist Government in Russia on Jan. 26, had been abrogated, and that its place had been taken by a new treaty.
The Radoslavoff Ministry in Bulgaria resigned June 16.
China and Japan reached an agreement on military affairs, including the expedition into Siberia, and on other matters on May 20, and the formal compact was signed June 2. A naval convention had been signed May 23.
The Belgian Foreign Minister, Charles de Broqueville, resigned on June 3. He was succeeded by M. Cooreman, former President of the House of Representatives.
A memorandum presented to the American State Department and made public on June 14 showed that Belgians were still being deported and were compelled to work behind the German lines.
On June 12 the lower house of the Prussian Diet adopted the fourth reading of the suffrage bill, including provision for the proportional representation of the mixed language districts of the eastern provinces, and also passed bills settling the composition of the upper house and providing for a revision of the Constitution.
Peru seized interned German ships of 50,000 tonnage at Callao, June 15.
Costa Rica declared war against Germany May 23.
A Battle Seen From Above
By a Correspondent at the Front
[By arrangement with The London Chronicle]
The night mists came creeping up like a smoke screen, and the battalion that marched up toward the edge of the battlefield along the road that skirted the far end of the aerodrome was a regiment of shadow forms. A band of drums and fifes was playing them out with a merry little tune, so whimsical and yet so sad also in the heart of it.
It had been decided that an important railway junction behind the German lines was to be bombed. All day long had been the continuous roar of death, and now, when night had fallen, all the sky seemed on fire with it. Voluminous clouds, all bright with a glory of infernal fire, rolled up to the sky, the most frightful and tragic thing it has ever been given to men to behold, with an infernal splendor beyond words to tell.
With a tense, restless emotion the order to set off out over the enemy lines was awaited. In the ground-fog the machine, with a load of bombs tucked away under the wings, looked a mysterious, weird thing, and shadowy forms flitted hither and thither across the aerodrome. The tramp of marching men could be heard, and the tap of drums to the rhythm of their feet, and those transport columns which shake the Flemish cottages of the little hamlets as they pass along.
At last the order was given, and up into the chill air the machine rose. Circling round a couple of times, the nose of the airplane was set in the direction of the objective, away behind the inferno of the hell-fires of No Man's Land.
Only the mighty voice of the engine could be heard, and headlights were switched off just before crossing the line. There was still a dank, heavy mist hanging over the ground, and visibility was not so good as might have been desired.
But down below one of those terrible bombardments, a beautiful and devilish thing, was in full blast. All the sky seemed on fire with it, and thousands of gun flashes were winking and blinking from hidden places and hollows. Shells rushed through the air as though flocks of colossal birds were in flight. Amid all the noise and din of those fires of hate and hell it was certain the monotonous drone of the engine would not be heard.
Then, when the Hun lines had been crossed without trouble from "Archies," glancing back, star-shells could be seen bursting and pouring down golden rain. And as far as the eye could see, northward and southward, stretched seemingly unbroken lines of Verey lights. The enemy was also sending up his flares, as he often does, to reveal any masses of men who may be moving between his shell craters and ours.
Quickly the "eggs" were dropped on the objective, and two terrific bursts of flame indicated the explosions. Evading the beams of a searchlight that sought to pick up the machine, home and the friendly darkness were sought.
The German lines were recrossed, and, glancing below, it was seen that S O S light signals, with their little cries of color to the German gunners behind, were being sent up into the skies. It was some time ago that such lights were first seen up in the sky, and they had never ceased their winking for a single night, though now they appeared blurred in the white breath which had arisen from the wet earth.
And to pass over all this is to conceive a great admiration for these gunners, who, amid all the tumult, deafening and nerve splitting, of our batteries, work with an endurance and courage to the limit of human nature. G. B.
American Soldiers in Action
Achievements of General Pershing's Troops in the Terrific Battles in Champagne and Picardy
[Month Ended June 18, 1918]
With over 800,000 American troops in France, as the Secretary of War announced on June 15, 1918, the United States in the last month has assumed a far greater portion of the Allies' burden and has begun to take its full share in the large-scale fighting on the western front. Within a year since the first American troops landed in France, a period primarily one of preparation, the United States Army has developed into an important military factor. Evidence of this was seen in June in several engagements in which the Americans distinguished themselves by their gallantry, resourcefulness, and efficient methods. Prominent in the month's record were the American offensive at Cantigny, and later, on a much larger scale, the operations at Château-Thierry and in the Marne region near that town.
General Pershing directed the offensive which resulted in the capture of the strongly fortified village of Cantigny, northwest of Montdidier, thereby creating a small salient. The attack, which was delivered on May 28, was on a front of one and one-quarter miles. The Americans, supported by French heavy guns in addition to their own artillery and French tanks, swept forward with remarkable speed and precision, occupied the village, captured 200 prisoners, and inflicted severe losses in killed and wounded on the enemy. Then, with equal rapidity, they consolidated their newly won positions and were thus able to repulse some very fierce counterattacks during the following days. The American casualties were relatively small. The troops that captured Cantigny were sent to that sector a month previously, after Pershing's offer to place all his men and resources at the disposal of the Allies. During the four weeks preceding the offensive the Americans had held their positions under comparatively heavy shelling.
Both before and after the Cantigny engagement, the Americans in all the sectors where they held positions were occupied in ceaseless fighting of minor importance. There were many artillery duels, with plentiful use of gas on both sides, many raids, and considerable aerial activity. The Americans began to feel the effect of increased aircraft production, and in several sectors where the Germans had previously had the advantage the situation was now reversed and American aviators had the upper hand.