Largely by the use of a new and dangerous device, the Germans obtained a considerable success on Thursday evening in an attack on a large scale on the French position north of Ypres in the direction of the Yser. Late last night the following report from Sir John French was issued by the Press Bureau:-
1. Yesterday evening the enemy developed an attack on the French troops on our left in the neighbourhood of Bixschoote and Langemarck on the north of the Ypres salient.
This attack was preceded by a heavy bombardment, the enemy at the same time making use of a large number of appliances for the production of asphyxiating gas.
The quantity produced indicates a long and deliberate preparation for the employment of devices contrary to the terms of the Hague Convention, to which the enemy subscribed.
The false statement made by the Germans a week ago to the effect that we were using such gases is now explained. It was obviously an effort to diminish neutral criticism in advance.
2. During the night the French had to retire from the gas zone. Overwhelmed by the fumes, they have fallen back to the canal in the neighbourhood of Boesinghe.
Our front remains intact except on the extreme left, where the troops have had to readjust their line in order to conform with the new French line. Two attacks were delivered during the night on our trenches east of Ypres and were repulsed.
3. Fighting still continues in the region north of Ypres.
THE GERMANS' NEW WEAPON.
That the Germans were about to use something new in the way of asphyxiating gases in the hope of retrieving the loss of their superiority in artillery had become fairly clear, as pointed out in these columns some days ago, from the persistence of their official reports recently in referring to such gases as emanating from French and British explosives. They were out with their defence as early as eight o'clock yesterday morning in the following message officially circulated from Berlin by wireless:-
Advice has been received from the Main Headquarters that in the communication of April 19 the English Army Administration complained that German shells had been used during the recapturing of Hill 60, south-east of Ypres, which developed asphyxiating gases when exploding, a practice which is contrary to all the laws of civilised warfare.
As appears from the German official communications the opponents have been using this sort of fighting material for several months. They are apparently of the opinion that what is permitted to them should not be permitted to us. Besides, this appeal to the laws of warfare is not to the point. The German troops do not fire any shells, the sole purpose of which is the spreading of asphyxiating or poisonous gases, and the gases which do develop on the explosion of German shells are not as dangerous as the gases of the ordinary French, Russian, and English artillery shells. Also the smoke developing contrivances used by us in hand-to-hand fighting are in no manner contrary to the laws of warfare.
