All the passes are held by small squads of enemy soldiers well supplied with ammunition and machine guns and these spit defiance in the face of the troops who are attempting to get through: neither side are strong enough to run the risk of a costly offensive. The soldiers stationed within the city make occaional sorties out of the gates and by dint of hard Sghting, -and with the loss of numbers killed "and wounded manage to drive tha enemy back, but they are not strong enough to turn the defeat into rout and they do not dare pursue the retreating troops too far away from the city' lest their own return be out off. Consequently the conquering: troops have scarcely sounded the call. to return before. the scattered outside forces are pecking away at their rear. The forces that surround the city quite outnumber the troops within, but they have not sufficient strength to take the city by star The City Still Holds Throughout the 36 days of the siege every known military tactic has been resorted to, but has failed, The defending positions have been bombarded; the city has been shelled; the wail dynamited, Attempts have been made to burn the gates, to scale the walls, to fire the city, but every device has failed and every attack lias been beaten off with great loss of life, and to-day the military situation' seems to be much the same as siege began. be war-weary, to fight to the bitter end.
The troops of the various mand are placed in widening circles about the city for many miles around. Many of the troops that formerly made up the attacking divisions have now been withdrawn and sent further afield to join the and guarded the approaches to the city. Thus these forces have managed to keep the relieving columns back. The relief division have not been strong enough to break through the cordon and the Pass-defenders cannot spare suftlent forces to send back and make a determined attack on th reached, and now who can hold out the longest may emerge victor in ing ammunition as each believes that cartridges are more effective than conferences. It may be that tually the issue will be determined by the amount of munitions, rather than the number of men; not by brains, but bullets,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.