Paris, Oct. 22.
The withdrawal of French troops from their advanced positions west of the Blies River was a timely operation, a semi-official bulletin on the military situation emphasized today. The general swelling of the rivers in the front-line region, resulting in the plains being flooded, would have made advanced positions practically impossible to hold, even if no German attack had occurred.
The French troops are now firmly entrenched on the eastern bank of the Blies River on heights from where they can defy any German push which would automatically be halted by the flooded country even before the French lines are reached.
The Warndt Forest has also been evacuated by French troops except for two hilly positions of great str. tegic value where the French defenders were considerably reinforced. The forest itself was a possession of little advantage to the French who have adopted purely defensive tactics for the time being.—Havas. the Firth of Forth, without the loss of a single British plane, belonged to the Auxiliary Air Force, and until a few weeks ago, were stockbrokers, lawyers and sheep farmer:
Yet these "amateurs," observers declare, chased German planes with impunity and actually only one single hit, which did no damage, was obtained by German aircraft gunners in all combats over the Firth of Forth.
The attackers'. 30 per cent. loss in the recent air raid by the Germans, like the loss of a third of their submarines, is too heavy, observers believe, to be borne for long. Moreover, neither form of attack, it is pointed out, has achieved comment surate results, The British shipping losses of one half of one per cent. have already been made up by new ships.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.