The civilian refugees are going south in processions of farm carts, high-ended wagons, and ancient traps, or footing it behind barrows and perambulators. I would not speak lightly of the temporary loss of their lands and homes, but in their ranks there was no sign of panic or fear for the final result.
Most of them were women and children, with a few gaffers, heading a family group or driving cows and big white oxen. Girls with umbrellas up against the hot sun and dust clouds, little children in their Sunday best, and old ladies in Scotch caps sat on piles of straw, amid bedding and furniture, on high wagons. Many of the younger folks had bicycles and many walked, with dogs and goats frisking about them.
EXTENSION OF THE BATTLE
On May 31 Mr. Perris described the extension of the battlefront during the preceding twenty-four hours. He wrote:
The battlefront now forms a vast triangle, the apex pointing markedly toward Château-Thierry and less markedly toward Dormans. The west side runs for about fifty miles from the Oise opposite Noyon to the Marne. The east side runs back thirty miles to Rheims.
The enemy goes on multiplying his objective and distending his lines. The military worth of this strategy is perhaps in inverse ratio to its shown appearance on the map.
On the opposite flanks of the battlefield the allied forces have here been drawn slightly back from the acute salient, marked by the two trivial points named in a previous message, Betheny and Laneuvillette. The ruins of Rheims thus become the corner of the allied defenses on this line. I have explained that the city lies exposed in a saucer at the southwestern corner of the Champagne and is completely dominated by the allied crescent of high positions on the mountains of Rheims.
FIRM ON THE FLANKS
In contrast with the further advance of the German centre, the French and British forces on the wings are holding firm. The great highroad from Soissons to Château-Thierry marks broadly the western limit of the offensive.
On the northern stretch of it there was hard fighting yesterday. In the morning the enemy crossed the road at Hartennes and attacked westward with a number of tanks, but was checked near the hamlet of Tigny.