13 JANUARY 1917, Page 1

The Russians are conducting a new offensive on the Riga-

Jacobstadt line. The papers of Tuesday reported that they had opened well by taking about eight hundred prisoners and sixteen guns. The Germans said that their own oounter-attacks had brought them thirteen hundred prisoners. Whether this be true or not, the Russians have advanced their line at some points by several miles. On Wednesday we learned that the Russians had captured an island in the river Dvina. They surprised the Germans during a snowstorm. On Thure'ay we were informed that the German position between the Tirul Marsh and the river Aa had been captured. Up to the present the Russians have taken twenty-one heavy and eleven light guns.