lery. He has
displayed tact and judgment of a high order in many difficult
situations, and has rendered conspicuous service to the allied cause. I
have the honor to be, your Lordship's most obedient servant,

J.D.P. French, Field Marshal,
_Commanding in Chief the British Army in the Field._

IV.

*The Battle in Flanders.*

[Official Abstract of Report for The Associated Press.]

LONDON, Nov. 29.--A report from Field Marshal Sir John French covering
the period of the battle in Flanders and the days immediately preceding
it, issued today by the Official Press Bureau, shows that this battle
was brought about, first, by the Allies' attempts to outflank the
Germans, who countered, and then by the Allies' plans to move to the
northeast to Ghent and Bruges, which also failed. After this the German
offensive began, with the French coast ports as the objective, but this
movement, like those of the Allies, met with failure.

The Field Marshal, doubtless in response to the demands of the British
public, tells what the various units of the expeditionary force have
been doing--those that failed and were cut off and those who against
superior numbers held the trenches for a month. He gives it as his
opinion that the German losses have been thrice as great as those of the
Allies, and speaks optimistically of the future.

The report covers in a general way the activities of the British troops
from Oct. 11 to Nov. 20.

Summing up the situation in concluding his report, the Field Marshal
says:

"As I close this dispatch, signs are in evidence that we are possibly in
the last stages of the battle from Ypres to Armentieres. For several
days past the artillery fire of the enemy has slackened considerably,
and his infantry attacks have practically ceased."

Discussing the general military situation of the Allies, as it appears
to him at the time of writing, Sir John says:

"It does not seem to be clearly understood that the operations in which
we have been engaged embrace nearly all of the central part of the
Continent of Europe, from the east to the west. The combined French,
Belgian, and British Armies in the west and the Russian Army in the east
are opposed to the united forces of Germany and Austria, acting as
combined armies between us.

"Our enemies elected at the commencement of the war to throw the weight
of their forces against our armies in the west and to detach only a
comparatively weak force, composed of