Official communiques issuing from various sources yesterday convey the following intelligence as to the progress of the war:
The news from the Western theatre of war is the best that has yet been received.
An official message issued yesterday afternoon announces that the German Army in front of the Allies' left wing is in full retreat east of Soissons - a retreat that gives evidence of demoralisation and rout.
The captures were at first stated to include some 1,500 prisoners, besides several guns and Maxims and a large quantity of transport. A later message put the captures higher. Considerable bodies of infantry, who surrendered at sight, were being found in hiding in the woods.
This, with the rifling of villages and evidences, of drunkenness, is cited as pointing "to the demoralisation of the routed enemy."
The pursuit, it is stated, was being vigorously pressed.
A very full account of the recent fighting was issued yesterday from Paris. It explains that the German right, when it began to fall back, attempted to break the enveloping movement to the north of the Marne and west of the Ourcq, but were held until the Allies' offensive had made progress elsewhere.
Now the enemy is in retreat towards the Aisne and the Oise, having fallen back more than 60 kilomètres in four days.
Meanwhile the Allies' offensive from the south of the Marne has been pressed. - The most desperate fighting has taken place on the plateaux to the north of Sézanne and Vitry-leFrançois. The Germans have tried to break the Allies' centre by repeated violent attacks, but have failed. On Thursday the enemy ceased fighting on this part of the front, and fell back in the region to the west of Vitry-le-François.
Between the Argonne and the Meuse, fighting is going on without any great change in the general situation.
Thus, it is explained, the first phase of the battle of the Marne is turning out in favour of the Allied Armies, since the German right wing and centre are in retreat.
"The general situation has been completely transformed during the last few days both from the strategical and the tactical point of view. With regard to the success of the Allied advance on the left the German official war news, while admitting retirement before superior forces, claims that 50 guns and thousands of prisoners were taken from the Allies.
From Copenhagen comes the Berlin announcement that parts of the army of the Crown Prince have attacked the forts south of Verdun, which since Thursday have been bombarded by heavy artillery.
With regard to the great struggle that is proceeding on the Galician frontier our Petrograd Correspondent, who telegraphs under Thursday's date, says says that the Austro-German armies are retreating from Lublin are being pursued into marshy country.
The Austrian armies defeated at Lemberg have been strongly reinforced by the Germans, and against them heavy fighting is proceeding on a front of forty miles. Gorodok still holds out.
The completion of the Russian operations has been delayed by the necessity of bringing up reinforcements. No doubt is entertained of the ultimate success of the fight.
The prisoners taken have been so numerous that they have been despatched to the nearest railway stations in droves.''
The Belgian Army has made a general movement of advance from Antwerp, driving back the Germans to within reach of Louvain.
Our Special Correspondent at Antwerp tells of the awful havoc wrought by the German troops in the Belgian villages.
A very signal success by the Servians is reported from Nish. After a sanguinary battle Semlin, a town on the right bank of the Danube, opposite Belgrade, was occupied early on Thursday morning. This marks the beginning of the invasion of Hungarian territory.
The Porte has notified to the Foreign Embassies the abrogation of the Capitulations as from the 1st of next month. This means that foreign residents in Turkey will be amenable to the laws of the country.
The Austrian Diplomatic Agent and the German Chargé d'Affaires left Egypt yesterday on the invitation of the British military autherities.
A Colonial troop-train carrying 600 men has been derailed in the Hex River Pass, South Africa. Eight men were killed and 86 were injured.
The names of the officers and planters killed and wounded in the recent fighting in Nyasaland are published.
The Hamburg-Amerika liner Bethania, with 400 men on board, has been captured and taken into Kingston, Jamaica, by a British warship.
The Belgian Mission which has gone to America to protest against the German outrages arrived in New York yesterday.
Mr. Fisher, the Labour Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, stated yesterday that in the present war Australia would be with the Mother Country to the end.
In order to remove all causes for disagreement, the Union Government of South Africa has decided to allow the nine Labour deportees to return.
It has been decided that until further notice the minimum height and chest measurement for infantry recruits shall be raised.
The Prince of Wales's National Relief Fund yesterday amounted to £2,490,000.