On the Flanders front a fresh advance was made last
Saturday, on the ridge to the north of Passchendaele. In drenching- rain the Canadians fought their way along the crest and British troops struggled through the swamps on the western slopes. The• enemy, who must have been reinforced, delivered a series of heavy counter-attacks against the British troops, and later in the day recovered some of the " pill-boxes " which he had lost. He then subjected the Canadian lines to heavy shelling for three days, and on Tuesday afternoon made a resolute attack on them, only to be completely repulsed. The enemy realizes, if all the people at home do not, the significance of our hold on the greater part of the Passchondaele ridge. if he cannot push our men off the ridge, he will soon loss•it all, and then his whole position In Western Flandore will be in jeopardy. Sir Douglas Haig would have had the ridge weeks ago if he had been favoured by a spell of dry weather. It is the mud, and not the enemy, that has delayed his progress.
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