he? He
wears the Iron Cross, but he doesn't come into your trenches. Tomorrow
M. Poincare, our President, will visit us. He does not wear an Iron
Cross, but he isn't afraid."

On the morrow the Germans saw a top hat come bobbing and bowing along
the French trench and heard loud cries of "Vive le President!" Time
after time they riddled that top hat with bullets, and still it went
bobbing along until the French took it off the spade handle, threw it
into the air and howled in derision.

Seeing Nieuport Under Shell Fire

[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

FURNES, Dec. 21, (Dispatch to The London Daily News.)--For several days
I have been in possession of an authorization from the French commandant
permitting me to penetrate to Nieuport. This town has been under
bombardment by the Germans since Oct. 20. There were days, however, when
no shells fell in the town and a walk in the streets presented no
danger, though this was by no means the case last week, when, after a
period of calm, an event of considerable importance occurred. The Allies
took up the offensive in an effort to drive the Germans from the coast
and recapture Ostend and Zeebrugge.

Along the whole front from the Yser to the sea there were important
movements of troops. These I am not at liberty to describe, but they
have for the most part only a small significance in relation to the
events described in this letter. For eight days the struggle has been
very severe on the Yser, and night and day hundreds of guns have been
sending shells across the space dividing the two armies. Since the end
of October the Germans had been established at St. Georges and
Lombartzyde, close to Nieuport, and their trenches between Nieuport and
Nieuport-les-Bains were separated from those of the French and Belgians
only by a canal twenty yards wide running from Furnes through Nieuport
to the sea.

I left Furnes on a French motor truck carrying bread and meat to the
troops at Nieuport. For about three miles the truck followed the canal,
passing the village of Wulpen, and then came to a stop. We had arrived
near the bridge over which we must pass to reach Nieuport. As we slowly
approached the bridge I asked the chauffeur: "What is delaying us?" "It
is a little too warm for the moment," he replied.

When a soldier admits that things are warm it is certain that there is
serious fighting afoot. To the right and left over the fields we could
see the inundations. On t