_Thursday, September 10._


Thirty-ninth day of the war. Cloudy weather, with a brisk shower and
some thunder at three this afternoon. Afterwards fine. Southerly wind.
Temperature at five P.M. 22 degrees centigrade.

Favorable news was communicated at eleven o'clock this evening at the
headquarters at the Invalides. After four days of steady fighting, the
allied left wing has crossed the Marne near Charly and driven back the
enemy sixty kilometers, the British taking many prisoners and machine
guns. Near Sezanne, the Prussian Guard Corps has been driven back, north
of the marshes of St. Gond. No change is noted in relative positions on
the allied center and right, where fighting still continues with great
violence.

I went to the official press bureau at three this afternoon and met
there M. Arthur Meyer, the genial and venerable editor of the
_Gaulois_, and about forty French and foreign journalists. M.
Arthur Meyer, as "dean" of our calling, had a pleasant word and smile
for all. Just before the official _communique_, the director of the
Press Bureau, Commandant Klotz, former Minister of Finance, instructed
his assistant to notify all present that "any reproduction of or even
allusion to the interview published in an American morning paper (the
_Paris Herald_) with an American diplomatist would not pass the
censor if handed in at the telegraph or cable offices, and also that its
appearance in any French newspaper was prohibited. The reason for this
is that the interview might cause misunderstanding, and that it merely