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EUROPEAN WAR DEVELOPMENTS. An otllcial announcement was given out iu Berlin as follows: "Near Meuport during the night of Dec. 21-25, attacks delivered by English and French troops were repulsed. The success of the battle with English and Indian contingents near St. Hu- belt can he judged better today. Nineteen office! s and. SIS men were taken prisoners, while fourteen machine guns, twelve mine throwers and other war material was captured. The enemy left more than 3,000 dead on the field. Tlie English asked for a cessation. of hostilities to bury the dead. Our lossts were comparatively small. Some minor engagements have taken place at LIlions, southwest of Amiens, and at Tricy-le-Val, northeast of Compelgne. We captured 300 prisoners. In the Vosges, south of Diedolshauser and in Upper Alsace, west of Senn-lieim, and also at a point to the southwest of Alt-kirch. there were small engagements yesterday, but the situation remains unciianged. The evening of Dec. 20 a French airman threw nine bombs on a certain small village. No troops were stationed at this place; there was ouly a hospital, which was plainly marked. No damage of consequence was done. In reply to this aerial attack and also the throwing of bombs on the open town of Freiburg, which is not defended and outside the zone of oieratious, Senium airmen threw medium sized Ixinibs into the outskirts of Nancy." ftnssian successes are reported oiliclally at Petro-grad from the battle front before Warsaw and from that around Cracow, but without materially changing the general situation. Especially vicious attacks bave been made by the Germans between Plnczow. forty miles northeast of Cracow, and Nowemlasto Kerozyn, at the junction of the Nida and Vistula rivers. Time after time the Austrians advanced in solid formation against the Russian front iu the face of a heavy artillery lire. The net results after two days lighting December 22 and 215 was the capture by the Russians of nearly 5,000 prisoners and the retention by the Russians of the left bank of the Nida. Among the items given out by the German official press were the following: "East of Festober the Germans have wrested from the British another part of their fortified positions. Near Chivy, northeast of Vailly, the German troops dislodged a company which had secured a footing In front of the German position. Here 172 French were taken prisoners. The enemy, in an attempt to retake the position, sulTered heavy losses. French attacks near Goualn, Perthes, northwest of Veiduu and west of Aprcmont, have been repulsed." The following official bulletin was issued from Russian general headquarters: "There has been no change on the left bank of the .Vistula river or in Galicia. The Germans delivered attacks on the day and night of December 24, principally In the districts of Sochaczew and Bolinow, but all were repulsed with great loss to the enemy. Fighting continues on the banks of the Pilica river." The French war office gave out an official an-nouneeiiient as follows: "There have been moderate artillery exchanges on the front from the sea to the Lys. On the Lys itself a Iieavy fog has made operations impossible. Between ihe Lys and the Oise we have repulsed several counter attacks Of the enemy." The Japanese embassy at Washington received official news from Tokyo that Rususia has ceded to Japan its half of the island of Saghaliu for some heavy guns. The island was officially Russian until September. M0.". The southern half was ceded to Japan by the terms of the treaty of Portsmouth. England and France have given assurances to the Italian government that cargoes or copper on board Italian steamers, which have been held as contraband of war. will lie released. In return Italy has pledged itself to prevent the exportation of copper. Five German aeroplanes dropped bombs on Sapha-czew, Russian Poland, killing eight persons. A number of buildings were set tire and destroyed. Saphaezew is on the Bzura river, about thirty miles from Warsaw. German aeroplanes are causing much alarm in England by daring tliglits close to London. A battle in the air took place over Sheerness on Christinas day iu which the German aviator was driven, oif. According to a Petrograd dispatch tin- number of German prisoners registered in Russia is 1,1-10 officers and 1:11,700 men; the number of Austrians registered is 3,100 officers and 221,100 men. A JCeppefin airship Hying over Nancy, in France, dropped fourteen bombs ukjii the city. Two persons were killed, two were wounded and severai houses were slightly damaged. An Austrian reiort indicates that the Carpathians are being cleared gradually or the Russians, but that tlie latter are stubbornly holding their own in Galicia. Latest Petrograd reports are that the Russian armies are now holding the Germans in check at all points in Polapd. Victory in a general series of outpost engagements Ihroughtoiit the Caucasus lighting front is claimed by tlie Russians. The British trawler Genua was sunk bv a mine. . . -Eight men were drowned, only one being saved.
