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PARIS — A French aviator, Sub-Lieutenant A. Marchal, has accomplished the remarkable exploit of crossing Germany and dropping copies of a proclamation on Berlin. Unfortunately, when less than 100 kilometers from the Russian lines, he was obliged to ground owing to engine trouble, and was taken prisoner. Sub-Lieutenant Marchal left Nancy at half-past nine on the evening of June 20 on a special type of Nieuport monoplane, taking with him sufficient essence for a fourteen hours’ flight. His mission was to cross Germany at a low altitude, drop copies of his proclamation on Berlin and land in Russia.

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By a stroke of ill-luck, after flying all night and accomplishing his mission, the plucky aviator was obliged to come down near Cholm, in Poland, at half-past eight on the morning of June 21. He had hoped to reach Rovno, and on being taken prisoner when so near his goal, he broke down and wept. The proclamation which Sub-Lieutenant Marchal dropped in Berlin commenced: ‘‘We could drop bombs on the open city of Berlin and kill women and children, but we drop merely this proclamation.’’ The proclamation and other pamphlets, which the aviator showered down among the people of Berlin as they were on their way to work, were destined to enlighten them on certain war facts which the German authorities have hidden from them. — The New York Herald, European Edition, July 25, 1916