Advancing steadily upon Jerusalem in the Palestine campaign against the Turks, the British forces under General Allenby finally, on December 10, captured the Holy City and restored it to Christendom. The Turks were driven to the north, with heavy losses, the port of Joppa was occupied, and Palestine was slowly but surely freed from Mussulman dominion. General Allenby formally entered and took possession of Jerusalem on December 11 with a small representative force of British and colonial troops, being received and welcomed with impressive ceremonies by the inhabitants. WAR DECLARED AGAINST AUSTRIA The United Stages Congress on December 7, 1917, passed a resolution declaring a state of war to exist with Austria-Hungary. Austrian aliens, however, were permitted free movement in the United States, only Germans being classed as alien enemies and subjected to restrictions as such. It was announced by the Secretary of War during the winter that 500, American troops would be on the fighting line in France in the spring of 1918 and that a total of 1,500,000 men would be available for the front during the year. A portion of the French front was taken over by the United States troops under General Pershing early in 1918 and in a number of trench raids and patrol engagements in the last weeks of winter they gave a good account of themselves, receiving their baptism of enemy fire and gas with the utmost gallantry and winning several minor engagements. A small number of Americans were captured in German raids up to March 10, but the losses inflicted upon the enemy more than counterbalanced those sustained. RUSSIA FORCED INTO "PEACE" On November 28, a few days after German emissaries had been sent to Petrograd to parley with the peace faction in disorganized Russia, the Bolshevik _de facto_ government under Nicolai Lenine and Leon Trotzky began negotiations for an armistice with Germany; and on December 3 an armistice was arranged. The Cossacks under General Kaledines and General Korniloff began a revolt against the Bolsheviki, who organized their forces as Red Guards, and a virtual reign of terror was inaugurated in Russia while negotiations for a separate peace with Germany proceeded with numerous interruptions. The administration of Lenine and Trotzky became an absolutely despotic regime, all forms of opposition, being summarily dealt with, while crime was rampant and blood flowed freely in Petrograd and Moscow. The Ukrainian provinces formed a separate republic and proceeded to make peace with Germany and Austria. Formal announcement of the armistice with the Petrograd government was made at Berlin December 16, with the statement that peace negotiations would begin immediately at Brest-Litovsk on the Eastern front. Russia thus violated her pledge to the Allies not to make a separate peace.