Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 156, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1918 — WAR SUMMARY. [ARTICLE]

WAR SUMMARY.

While the German high command —for reasons known only to itself—still hesitates to undertake the fifth offensive of the year in France, which even Lloyd George many days ago predicted would develop "kt any hour/* the Austrians continue to re* treat in Albania. The Franco-Italian lino in the Balkans has now been advanced to a. point twenty-five miles north of Berat. The fighting front is seventy miles long. Most of the battling is in the mountains. The immediate allied objective is the ancient Roman road between Monastir and Dnrasso, the important Albanian seaport on the Adriatic, and historic as the “window” which Serbia sought while the great war was as yet confined to paper. Although additional prisoners and materials have been taken, the immediate value of the gains in the Balkans is political rather than military. Occupation of the military road will threaten seriously the Bulgarian flank, and will open the path for the recorvery of much of Serbia. Bulgarian morale is low; the people are weary of the war, having received in territory ail that they coveted. The Jugo-Slavs, already sympathetic toward the allies, await only further success in the Balkans, it is declared, openly to oppose Austria. The events of the next few days will bo watched earnestly in the allied capitals. On the western front, the French continue their series of sharp local attacks, each of which is an offensive in miniature, and each of which has been highly successful. The latent is the straightening of the line from the Aisne southward to below Corey, a distance of twelve miles. Occupation of Corey, which lias on the west side of the Marne salient and to the southwest of Soissons, has been completed. Thus one more “jumping off place” for the Germans in their prospevtive offensive has been removed. At the same time a similar, though smaller, operation \has been completed by the British south of the Som me and east of Villers-Brotonneaux, the scene of dreadful fighting early in the year. Mrs. Leslie Miller went to Kankakee, Hl. today for a visit with her mother. If you have a house to rent, rent it through the columns of The Republican. Republican classified advertising pays;