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[No title]
If. the people of this country imperfectly appreciate the magnificent work that Russia is accomplishing for the Allied cause, they may be pardoned by a natural absorption in the fortunes of the struggle so close to their very doors, in which their own sons Are fighting, as well as the remoteness and atrangeness of the scene of conflict between the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian Armies. But they cannot fail to perceive that the progress of the Russian Armies has been amazing in its success and rapidity, and that a splendid organisation, skilled leadership, and superb fighting spirit amongst the rank and file have achieved re- sults upon a scaJe unparalleled, and surpass- ing even the exploits of Moltke in the Seven Weeks' War of 1866 that, broke the Aus- trian power, or the month's campaign that laid the Third Empire of France in the dust. There has been nothing in the Western theatre, with it? long and hurried retreats by either side, each in turn sweeping up the debris of straggling, exhausted or faint- hearted men, and odds and ends of trophies, to compare with the material gains of the great battles before Lemberg and south-west of Lublin, which have yielded to the Rus- sians probably 200,000 of their enemies, killed, wounded, and captured, with four hundred guns, one great first-class and one I important second-class fortress, an exten- sive tract of hostile territory, besides placing the remnants of the shattered and dejected armies that opposed them in a. critical and dangerous strategical situation. The extent of the Russian task may be divined from the information now available that more than forty Austrian first line divi- Eion and a mass of complementary troops, as well as German reinforcements, were de- ployed in a total ?rength of more than one million men and 2,500 guns in two main armies. The right, posted east of Lemberg,  was decisively defeated on the first of this month by General Russky, abandoning 200 guns and the fortress of Lemberg to the Russians. The remains fell back east on Ravarusska. where they were reinforced and I promptly attacked. The left, the chief of the armies,, pushing forward on r Lublm, an  important town south-east of Warsaw, was 1 adroitly ?ured on by the Russians, who pur- posely strengthened their flanks at tbe ex pense of their wsak centre, which receded until the Austrians, following it, were partly enveloped. Then the Russians struck hard, with such fierce energy that the Austrians were cut in two at Tomasboff, and the. portions, fghting desperately with their bank's tnrnN!. have been forced back with heavy present bates, «.n-j still heavier v.-it', heavn, y-,reseiit !?LAWS, -,till lie-avier ?' <)?<K< battle, in which mth two mi? bon men have been battling over 'a front of two hundred miles, the Austro-Hungarian rrnv has been so broken up and demoral- ised that much further resistance upon its part is hardly possible. East Prussia is. in tact, the only region w here matters have not gone well. In this area the Germans 'have regained possession of the greater part of the occupied territory, and are-, even contemplating an incursion over the border into Poland. In its loyalty to the Allies the Russian Army made here, perhaps, a perilously lapid advance. Tens of thousands of lives were sacrificed at Oster- ode." declares the Petrograd correspondent of "The Times," to relieve the pressure of the German armies on France. The sacrifice rap not made in vain there is now proved I to have been a certain withdrawal of Ger- man troops from the Western to the Eastern frontier. But the correspondent continues to warn us that it is a painful truth, which it is perhaps as well for us to recognise at t'lis stage of the war, that the crippling of General Samfinoff's Army at a time when the continued Russian operations were sweep- ing the whole right bnnk of the Vistula will s •: -eriobly lengthen the period of time ne- eersary completely to crnsh our foe. > The Southern Russian Army should shortly invade Southern Silesia, an advance through which offers many strategic advantages over, a direct march westward from Warsaw upon Poeen but the clearing of East Prussia will largely have to be done over again under more difficult conditions than when first con- cieved, and the transference of sufficiently powerful forces to this quarter will take time. With the failure of the great German en terprise in France this is of the lees moment; but it prolongs the war. There ha-ve been two striking factors of the Eastern ca.mpa.ign-tlle military rehabilita- tion of the Russians, '.nd the wonderful spirit displayed by the Russian people. In regard to the first of these cutstanding character- istics, the Russians have demonstrated that they can now carry out on an immense scale the business of mobilising, supplying and manoeuvring a huge army over a vast field of war, an operation impossible to a race not endowed with intellectual capacity of the highest order, integrity, efficiency, energy and foresight. The Russian War Office and military administration have done their work to the admiration of every mili- tary authority, to the stupefaction and the confounding of the Germans. The soldiers, for their part, have played their part su- perbly well. In the darkest hour of the Rus- sian army, battling not only against the enemy but against every crippling influence incapacity at home, the Russian soldier has ever proved himself of the toughest, "most enduring material: unshakable by de- feat, patient, indomitable and tenacious in :*he most adverse ('ircuIJ>.sta.nœ.s" immune from the intoxication of victory, a mm:ple, reiro? soul. One must not or?y ??'  Tnuft knock them nver w?pn c?d," ('x- i ?Tned Napoleon at Evlau. It haa been the fortune of the Rusaian sol d"er to encounter ?n Jn>" of the greatest pte.!ns who have ever „n e"mlled in the list of the world's co?- „ *?*' Carles the Twelfth, Frederick fh 1', .3n u!!l<"rles the 'T"eHth, Fr-eèel':f'k "?t, Nrq-,oleon, all Mied to break ?e p,'0fa5*T'faT,t,T- All hi turn 'n? t.he tT)m. IT) +t;r ^rvrtT,nftS in te .olid courageous- 'he RnsMa.n soldier. And he 5 USSia^ pe°p-e' au?eroux ??'?? P?P?' ?'?- *ivw*°' -r.e h us, deep and oocasiona]]v bitter as have bee" S d^mestic divisions in the T\" -t h.. t' !)mes IC IVlSlOns In e past, havfx£ £ ?, "e<i a noblp object lesson to the world T??? ? ??? object lesson to a-hefo' e\-e "vere »' «>e »»•• <* tb war-b?re ?? -Louvumhad "n: ma?ed the C? erm? loo,ked   OUr  Allv. Mislf>d b j,=VoncA aIt T *1*01^ t?at -L)6ere J no c l w. t? ???"h:?? r? ?s natjon, there were  „ tmen who had totally miscon- I r Z iS? character. T?ev might have reflected that of two of the outanding figures of the nineteenth century, it was Tolstoi, preaching in other guise the faith and precepts of Christ, who is the Russian, and Nietsche, the perverted, half-mad philo- sopher, preaching a crazy pagan doctrine of war, bloodshed, And barbarism, who is the offshoot of German "culture." The Russian peoples are not in their outer as- pects, perhaps, upon our level of progress; l in such material matters as the application to national and domestic life of modern in- ventions and ideas; but beneath all the in- evitable deficiencies of a, people still in the main primitive there can be discerned a great-hearted, great-souled race, strongly j idealistic and spiritual, pious surpassingly, 3 clever, simple, child-like in its vision, teixiei and humane. | Even in the narrow sphere of politics. ? |. war promises to see great changes — t) & emancipation of the Jew, who has shed h 8 blood freely and bravely, the healing of the I feud between Russian and Pole, who now only remember that both are Slavs. Civilisa- tion owes in art and science a great debt to Russian genius, in literature, music, the craft of healing, and philosophy. It ha* been furnished by Ru-ssia with noble ex- amples of fortitude and constancy in mis- fortune in the domain of war. It will owe it a yet greater debt, when it realises that Russia, with her mighty strength, has made it as sure as inexorable fate that the greatest peril that civilisation has known, possibly since the beating back of Attila.i hordes, is ultimately t-o be dissolved eternally, and that a world in which love, liberty, righteousness and peace are t-o be permitted tree play is not to cast down by a blood-stained culture." so ruthleps that the dark ages hardly afford an ad-equate parallel. <
[No title]
Should the Belgians ach i eve the ob j ect, of severing the German lines of communication through Belgium, the necessity will be imposed upon the Germans of passing great aosts encumbered with big guns an d the ot h er impedimenta of armies equipped solely for an offensive war of s h ort duration through one narrow nec k with hostile forces, inflamed and inspirited by victory, pounding awa y at their rear. In suc h case there ma y bs consequences which, by compar ison, will re d uce to comparative insignificance the suc- cesses alread y claimed for the Allies. The next few days should yield news of an in- tensely interesting nature For the success of the Allies on the lines suggested will compel the retreat of the invad ers across th f front of Verdun an d its supporting line of fortifications an d into the perilous reg i on of the Ar d ennes. The state of mind of the Kai ser just now is not to be env i e d with arm i es West and East in jeopard y,, and with his su b jects at home, fed up with "officiiil" Assurance^ of constant victories, demonstrating in the principal c i tr'es—an d iticidentallT defying the police—making loud demands for the "truth" which has begun to reac h t h e-n, through Holland and Switzer- land, despite official efforts at suppression. The •not inexplicable retioence of the German War Office respecting the oonnee of events in France—- it was quite garrulous up to the point w h en an entry into Paris seeme d the ver y next ac h ievement to an- nounce—during the past v-ep k has not un- naturally given rise to serious misgiving. By this time the Germans at home are, with probable truth, described, as dazed, almost benum be d by the possibility that the great war-machine has coll apse d that the (invincible armies of the Kaiser have met their matc h an d that red ruin is im- pending for the Empire which reac h ed out for the masters h ip of the whole wor l d. They were in d uce d to believe—with the Ban k ers w h o, w h en consulte d said they cou l d finanoe German y for a war of wee k s, but not one exten d ing into months—that in five or s i x wee k s terms of peace with France woul d be dictated in Par i s, enabling the com bined foroos of Germany and Austr i a afterwards to turn and ren d the Russians. But the revent h wee k has been reac h e d and the prospective occupiers of Paris have their bac k s turne d to the French capital, and are pre-ooeupie d chiefly with the saving of their own s kins, and the Russians, having disposed of the effective forces of Austria, are heading straight for Vienna, as a place of halt En a march on two fronts upon Berlin. The pagem of history may be ransac ke d in vain for a parallel to this swift an d decisive discomfiture of military arrogance. The knoc k d own b l ows have missed their mar k both on land an d sea, an d the Germanic effort to assert mastery r/ the world has irretrievab l y foundered in the first stage. Henceforwar d the struggle "pers i sts to ma k e oompJete the Ger- man co l lapse, and secure such conditions as will remove for ever the menace to human liberty the w h o l e worl d over.
[No title]
The news of Thursday was excellent; the progress ma d e by the Allied Forces on Wednes d ay was more than maintained; for from ever y quarter of the battlefield came the news that the Germans were being forced gradually back, and the British on their part had actually succeede d in cross- • ing the Marne. In the north-west corner of Northern France, in the rear of the Ger- man Army, an evacuation of the country by the inva d ers is reported; an d the signs j in this direction all go to prove that every denuded of troops. possible point is being denuded of troops, it is possible to misinterpret this; the Ger- man tactics are to assem b le the utmost strength at the selected place, and concen- trate all their energies upon one smashing blow delivered there. To effect this, they I have thrown every available man into the firing line, and strip of their troops every non-essential position in their rear. In the early stages of a campaign this indicates rath er a resolution to utilise their maxi- mum strength than the last resource of a desperate power at the end of its tether; j it mak es them for the time being the more terrible in their onset; but it leaves them with no reservw, should the blow fail and involves in a retreat the totality of their discomfited army. But the public would be w i se to model ite opinions zWn the situa?n, more hope- ful tr h it is to-day than since the fall of Uege, upon the sobrie/tv an d mod erat i on of the French official bulletins, in which every war d is weighed. Th ere is pcrosptible in tihe commun i ques a desire to re f rai n from excitinc excessive ex p ectations an d unwar- ranted hopes, struggling with a recognition that the pro gress mad e would justify much lem equivocal expressions of tisation. There is a viajgueness as to dates an d places that ratibeir diminishes the illuminating power of the bulletins, but the fact clear l y emerges that upon thear right the Germans are being edged away east and noa-th of the j position 6ooupied on the anniversar y of Sedan. As far as Compedgne, their advance upon the ca/pital had apparently been direct, or swerving even to the westwar d to sight it upon the north, w h ere there is a. broad gap between the outer forts. From Compiegne the direction was' sharply changed. It swerved away to the German left, the south-eastward of Par i s, and suggested either a decision not. to in- vest an d assault the capital—a more pos- sibly effective dramatically, but futile from the standpoint of strategy—or a resolve to abandon the initial strategical conception of turning the Allies' left wing, an operation i became impracticable w h en tho latter l i upon Paris, an d substitute a move- i V, V shaped, from the north -weet, in v 'n j unct i on with the German forces in the -■ >rth-easi, upon the Allies' centre. Once •■t.u was pierced the eastern wing of the ench might bq rolled up against the line "•"er d un- T ou l confronted by the German my in Lorraine, or force d to retreat sout h st. In which case, save for those fort- -'scs and the barrier forts between, the German right would be able to shift its line of commun i cation from the vulnerable to the rel a- tively safe Toute from Met-z to Strassburg westward. Maubeuge, in their rear, commanded an intermediate line, safer than the northerly route through Belgium, but its sta l wart re- sistance—though no news has been received of how it is faring these last four days, and the fall of t h ree of its forts bodes ill for the rest—debarred the Germans from the use of that line, which ran through Sout h ern Belgium. It remains to be seen whether the secon d ar y question of the lines of corhmuni- cation—important in a pre-em i nent degree though it. is when the feeding of a million an d a half men is in question-lias not de- ve l ope d difficulties so stringent an d exigent as to modify German strategy, of which the prime o b jective is the cripphnjg or destruc- tion of the Allied Field. Army. Whatever the troubles of the Germans in their rear, the Allies are busying them sum ciently on their front. The German line resem b les a rou g h semi-circ le, bent in on the right on the Ourcq, east of Par i s, and being dented in the centra by the British across the Marne, whilst its left is pinned to the groun d by the res i stance of Ver d un. They retain the advantage of the interior l i nes, of having a lesser distance from wing to wing than the Allies, and consequent greater opportunities of massing against a c h osen point. But they have become in- vo l ve d especially upon t?..ir right, in much bro k en, an d wood e d ground, where their numerical superiority in artillery is unava i l- ing, an d their infantry is compelled to put up with short range fighting of a c h aracter for which it has shown little stomach. Great as the capacity of the German infantry- man has prove d for stolidly tramping on in the face of a s heet of lead driving through his ranks, his shrinking from personal encounter with the bayonet and his miserable marks- mans h ip heavily discount his va l ul. The report from Gensral French on Thursday made it. elcaa however, that the German, reti rement was alow and well-con- ducted the gains he specified—350 prisoners taken by the Secon d Army Corps, 200 dead buried by the First, an d eighteen machine and field gurus captured—are slight, w hen j the magnitude of the hostile forces is borne in mind. The Germans are re ported to be greatly exhauste d but this is also an '• element that enters into the calculations of our generals, though weariness is better borne by men fired by success pressing on, than by men retiring after the fruitless c l ose of operations that had taxed so terribly strength an d fortitude. A fresh list of Brit- ish casualt i es, amounting to 3,600, was pub- lished on Thursday, extending up to Mon- day, the greater number being returned as missing. All told, the Expeditionary Force has now lost nearly 19,000 men, or almost a third of its infantry strength; but we have been assured that drafts have ma d e good | these losses, an d it is still a mystea-y as to what extent they represent- actua l dead an d wounded or men w h o have lost their way in an unfamiliar country. In the course of a retreat a lar g e percentage of loss from this cause is explicable, but in the course of aji a d vance it is the less com pre h ensible. The enemy, however, is effectually de b arred from knowing the punishment he has in- flicted, and the British authorities are the only ones who have yet published lists that give the gross casua l ties up to date. The German Hats are in no wa y comprehensive, but the high proportion of wounded to killed that they notify may not be unwarranted by the facts. Soldiers, British an d French, retail harrowing stories of the destruct i on of their regiments or br i gad es, but in most cases they can only speak for what they have witnessed in their immediate vicinity. The Press Bureau's permission far the publication of the report that H.M. S Path under was sun k by a German su b marine must be read in con j unction with the Ad- j miraltv report that on Wednesday and Thursday strong aquadrone and flotillas swept tho North Sea as far as Heligoland Bay, but discovered no German ships at lar g e. It suggests a movement designed to search out su b marines an d mine la y ers that might be at large. None such were dis- covered. It is perfectly feasible for a sub- manLne to evade the strKAest blockade by quittimg port at might, diving beneath thy. water, an d re-emerg i ng two or three hours later at a sa f e d i stance in the open sea. She can then travel by surface to the British coast, and lie in wait off Rosy th, Chatham, Cromarty, or the Orkneys, as the un k nown German su b- marine waylaid the Pathfinder. There -,s, however, no confirmation of the report from German official sources: and the Ger- < man Admiralty, which frankly and accn- rately described the disastaous action off Heligoland, woufld bo prompt to publish such news—authentic news of the first feat in warfaine ever accomplished by a su b marine. The assumption that it was a mine which so swiftly senv. the cruiser to her doom lost credence in view of the fact that no mine field has been reported further north than Newcastle; the torpedo, if such it was that destroyed the Pathfinder, seems to have burst against her side in the vicinity of a ) magazine. The 7th Welsh Cyclists were patrolling the coast in the neighbourhood of of the spot where the tragedy was enacte d In its circumstances it is awesome—a sunny, c l ear day; calm sky an d unruffled water; the cru i ser slowly proceeding in sight of the coast; and then the swift, overwhelming catastrophe, which meant an instantaneous end for the great ma j ority of her gallant crew. Further afield in the Atlantic, the capture of the German col l ier that had failed to de l iver her car g o of Welsh coal to a com- merce raiding cruiser will go far to put a stop to the activities of these not notably successful vessels, w hose only purpose has been to divert to the Atlantic a swarm of cruisers that wou l d ot-herwise be available for the North Sea. Five more day? similar to tbe past five, j t'I be pw? f and the German > »r d es will be driven from France. The All • t pro g ress in this, the decisive theatre oi the war,. is magnificent; on the German i- ht and centre the enein y is beung hurled bat .1, the retreat, has idrrady expended over forty miles, and the British official despatches—iassued at last 'vith a promptitude an d frequency which exempts the Press Bureau from further criticism-— sipeak in suah sinister words as rout and demoralisation. So faa: the tale of pri- soners is not to be counte d by the tens of thousan d s and of giuns by the scare, but the relentless pursuit, drivem homo with French ar d our a' 9 Bjitipb r"vm y, by men flushed with the consciousness of a, forward move- ment after w;>ary, trying days of retreat, promises to yield a heavy harvest of trophies. Rifled villages and evidences ro ?,r I Y, '? f lt of drun k esaness po:!i:t to the demoralisation of the routed enem y the British de- spatches state. The reaction upon the Ger- man troops, brought about within sight of Pair is citer weete of murd erous fighting and extraor d inary physical toil. must be well nigih shattering to their mora l e. With what, igeverity fighting which checked them and ooiwerted their repulse into a re- treat and retreat into a rout has raged we can but dimly guft.:o, from the reports that reao h us of towns in the remotest recesses of wostem and southern France that aare filling up with woun d e d But the resul t is now clear to see, aad the Germans within the next week will staiid daily in dire peril of a crushing and oalamitous "withd rawal. "Demoralisation"1 an d "drunkenness"; these wor d s contain perhaps the key to the mystery of the Gt-man halt and the inde- cision that has marked their movements s i nce their passage east of Paris. Inhere is no faintest sign as yet of the great surprise that the populace had credited the Allies with reserving for the s h ak en an d de- pleted German cohimna; no attack from flank or rear by mysterious armies secretly assem b led British, Russ i an or Indian. But t h ere are other factors that might astonish us equally were th?y fully known. One at least can be divined. It is the province of Champagne that hae been the principal field of the German operations during the past wee k Eperua y, C b ateau- T h i err y —centres of districts w h ere a sea of wine is bottled in bin and vat—t h ese names betray the occu- pation whence the peasants draw their liveli- hood from the sun-fsoorched clusters of the grape. Imagine a. host of men, weary to the death, thair zowes as overwrought as their tired bodies, their discipline slackened by the death and woundin g of so many of tfieir oiffcers-nien v ho are moreover heavy drinkers, parched b f the dust an d heat of k.n g quick marches un d er swe l tering s k ies, brought into the mdst of a world famous vineyard. Conside also the effects of an or g ie of a heady, unaccustomed liquid, an d prostrating physical consequences that ensue upon a debauch. The Bulgariaw in their march upon Chatalja plucked thf unripe grapes from the vineyards through which their army trampled its way. Dysentery, and later c holera, rava g ed thi ran k s. The Germans, moving partly a l so a rich orchar d district, may well have W- similarly confound e d When to "fha NWt. l when almost, in sight of the enemy's capital are added the physical results of orgies upon wine amd fruit, t here is a situation capable of upsetting the nicest ca l cu l ations of their lead ere. Drun kenness an d s i c k ness may not have been primary factors in dislocating the German plans; but they may very well have played a great pari in inducing the de- mora lisation that is reported Whilst the tide of battle rol ls away east- ward an d the roar jf the guns dies down in the ears of the listeners of Paris, Britain is nerving hersel f to e fforts which for her aro stupendous, yet no more than this Ti- tanic conflict demands. There are 150,000 men in the field; with their reserves there are .400,000 in all; 600,000 additional men are being raised, of whom 439,000 are al- ready recruited; a half-million more have been voted. In regulars of the standing and of the new arm i es we will in the course of time have more than a miL^n and a quarter upon the battlefield; with the Col on i a l s an d Territorials the total will be swol l en to th ree million. Butl far more will be forthcoming if the call is mad e, and there will even then remain that inexhaustible reserve of fighting men in India, with her 300 mil l ions, most of them of "old an d haughty nations, proud in arms, in whose veins the blood of warr i ors has flowed for centuries, whose history is rich with countless heroic feats o f warfare. Men, too, AS chivalrous as they are gallant, sons of men whoso trade, whose religion even was the sword. Germans will know long ere the war c l oses the full might and ma j esty of the British Empire, its matc hless strength and its gigantic resources that even Russia cannot equal. Vast as are the armies of manhood of France and Russia, Britain has the wherewithal to overshadow either. And she will use it. In Parliament this wee k members sat as- tounded as t h ere was read out to them the catalogue of offers prompted by the loyalty of the Princes of India. It is the outstand ing Imperial feature of the war; from the shadow of the Himalayas to the coral s h ores of the south, even from the frozen plains of aloof Tibet, there have come bound l ess de- monstrations of Indian loyalty and a ffection. Chieftains—men, be it remembered, from whom we have stripped the power to live an d ru l e as they listed—pour forth their treasuries of arms, warriors, jewels. The vo i ce of the agitator is raised only in praise of British rule, in eulogy of the century an d a half of striving after just, merciful, and righteous government. Sikh, Ghurka, Pathan, Bengali, Mahratta are moved by on,e common impulse for the first occasion in l the history of India—the impulse to place their swords at the bidding of the King Em peror. Tibet even o ffers a thousan d so l d i ers and the prayers for our success of her lamas f And in Africa, in desperate and bloody fighting in the Cameroon^, in Nyassa- land, and present l y in German South-West Africa, .black man Dutchman will g i ve, or have given, with Heir l i ves an earnest of their fidelity. For < rermany, not one man. not a German willir^iy raises a finger. For Britain, half the races and a quarter of the peoples of the earth hasten to her stan dards. But do not let us minimise the vast mili- tary difficulties that lie in the way of manu- facturing armies out of a boundless supply of the finest raw material in ex i stence. Of the million and a quarter regul ars that the Motherland alone will provide, a million have to be traine d equipped, officered, and time presses if the cost of the war in blood an d treasure is not to be enormous. And do not let us forget that the quality of the men thus raised as a nghting force will in no way be that of the perfect soldiery w h o, with sorely diminished num b ers, are doing the work of twice or thrice the num ber of lesser trained men upon the battlefield. If our enemy has the will, an d the means, to play the game out to the bitter en d he can strain our exertions to the utmost, and he too has resources in men yet untouched thai, are very formidable. The war may never reach the stage flor which we are preparing; we have at the moment of writing good ground for optim- ism. The retreat- of -the German army from France is accompanied by tho calling in of the forces in Northern Belgium, w h om the Belgians are aesaoling to pin them fe-st; t h ere is now prove d to have been a certain transference of troops from WTest I to East; but in the Russian theatre there are ob- scurities to be c l eared up. German and Russian official news united en disclos- ing the a d vance of masses of Germans across East Pruss i a in a locality denoting the evac- uai/ion ot nearly ali the or man terr i tory yet held by Russia, w ho has been singularly quiescent there s i ice the re verso at Osterode. But in Galicia German rfunforc-emente are bemg hurried to the aid of the Austrians— some already arriv i ng-ati d fighting here is so severe and prolonged that we may soon expect to hear w h ether Austria-Hungary is to be counted a. a factor in the war. Al- ready Russ i an troops over look from the Car- pathians the great plain of Hungary. The German massing in the nort h and naml ac- tivity in t 1; Baltic may be demonstrations made in the desperaie hope of easing pres- sure against the Austr i ans that is becom- ing intolerable. The Germans arn Wcom- ing consci ous that Uie Russian invasi on may not be from the East but from the 8'outh- East—through Silesia, turn i ng- the river cie- fences of the Oder and the Warthe. an d the chain oi fortresses aloftp the Vistula, as well as subjugating the province of Silesia, that is to Prussia what Yorkshire is to England. The despatch of General French and the detailed account of the fall of Namur enable a tolerably clear idea to be gained of the outlines of the first pha-s-e of the campaign in the western theatre. The honours are evenly divided be-tw.uu British and German generalship. Th. t-rolonge d halt in the German advance alter the sanguinary re- ports of the attempt to rush Liege--made with corps still upon a peace footing—an d the Belgian accounts of the successes achieved 16t, Diest an d Hae l en sprea d amongst the public the impress i on that Ger- man. plans had been totally disarranged and that the Anglo-French forces had a wholly unexpecte d opportunity to thwart in its m- ception the German scheme of invading France through the feebly protected north- ern provinces. But the opportunity was not utilised; and the Germans, behind the screen of their cavalry, weio rapidly accu- mulating an immense mass of troops which was present l y to burst out in a mighty overpowering flood that poured across Bel- gium an d Northern France to the w" of P-ri,sz.U but submerging the British, forces thrown heroically across its path. From reasons not yet explained—less ra- pidity of mobilisation than had been imag- imd a total miscalculation of the direction |of th: e German a d vance; a relia-nce upon the assumed capacity of Namur to with- stand an assau l t for sonM weeks or a pen- timental strategical a b sorption in the struggle in Aisace- Lorraine—the Frenc h were not in a nearly adequate force upon their extreme left wing, which wap pf?ted between th,, Bambre and the Mcu?< Namur fell 411 ough i-the- excels:1* r.n^«f-of it-,R garrison, .„ staanch cUfen^o than that of Liege, the j weakness of its armament, and the terrific artillery pounding of the Germans, who had learned costly wisdom at Liege. A French retirement was oom p e l led a* tile fortress was to have been the pivot of their opera- tions in the Ardennes. In the critical hour the two British Army Corps were railed to the front and deployed between Tournai, Mons and the village of Binclie. In default of suc h assi stance, 300,000 to 400,000 Ger- mans would have marc h ed unresisted, aroun d the French left w i ng, enve loping it, cutting off its retreat, an d descending upon Paris with the prestige of a sudden an d totally unexpected v i ctory. A second Se- dan was within the boun ds of possibility the German plan might well have come to its fullest fruition an d more than satisfied every expectation that had been formed bv its in- ccptors. But the British, brilliantly hand- led, fighting with superb courag e and skill, stood in the path of the onrushing masses, held them, an d save d the day. The effort was tremendous; we have the testimony of Genera l Frenc h that annihilation at one moment was the alternative to instant re- treat; but it ru i ne d the German sc h emes, bitterly disappointed thear hopes, and nul- lified the strategical ga i ns through the v i o la- tion of Belgium, even if it could-not avert retirement that brought the inva d ers within guns h ot of Paris within a month of tSie de- claration of war. The glorious stand at Mons, Cam b rai, and St. Quentin may yet prove to be intrinsic- ally the finest British achievement of the war. It is impossible to read Genera l French'« despatch without a thrill of pride. The operation of retreat was one of the most difficult in warfare; the enemy the most formidable in his power and determination we have ever encountered, tireless and fur- ious in his onslaughts. The story of British valour is an old one, though the braverv of our indomitable troops never rose higher than in those critical days in North ern France. What is a less common story is the magnificent generalship that brought the Army, sorely depleted but intact in its es- sentials, undaunted an d contemptuousl y de- fiant. of its pursuers, to a position w h p-e it could turn at bay an d rend its assailants. Corunna and Busaco, the battles in which an exu l tant enemy, pressin g hard upon our rear, was staggered and hurled back bv the sudden savage onfall of our retiring men, were repeated ag a i n and again. The cam- paign as far as it has -one has furn i she d a masterpiece of British braimness and brav- ery, a model of capable organisation— which in the past, has o ften failed and grievously—as well as of stubborn courage and unflinching fortitude.
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"A fierce battle has en d e d in an incon- testable victory for the Allies. With this highly ex p ressive dispatch from General Jolfre, the curt-ain descends upon the first eventful Act in the tremendoais Drama for which the wor ld serves as a stage. Sur- veyed retrospectively t here has Iveen nothing like it before. Opening wit/h the sanguin- a,ry scene at Liege, in which the invad ers, easy in their min ds an d somewhat cam ess in their methods, suffered a stern rebuff, but, quickly recover i n g resumed the inter- rupted move forwar d in torrential flood, sweeping irresistibly through unhappy Bel- gium, and catching the French thrust for- war d too far for an offensive ajotion based upon NamuiT which deceived their hope, rolled them back through O h ero i to Mons. Hera, reinf orced by the British, the dogged retreat began, more brilliant than man y victor ies, which was not stayed until Paris lav tremu l ous and shaken oil the left of the Allies. Soene I. closed showing the Germans in seemi n g triumph, their violent and tempestuous pilgrimage within reac h of H.s goal. Th? great war-mar ine, upon which human inventiveness a?d ,p(,n wealth had for yea? exhausted themselves to make perfect, was ju6iif*d of ? wopk. owing down and crunching I"0t had :t, oSered by tbp armi"s of th ree countries. The first hint that the Htrain had pOtS?My develope d some organic defect came in tJt?' swarve away from Par i s by the German j right w i t?, which at first confuse d H? mHi- j tajy .po.ndj?, w ho later ?atds?ed t.hcn'f&?h'?? I .h ot the o b j ect wrss to concrtritrate against the centre of < the Allies as a preliminary step | toward s the breaidng of the Anglo-.French Army in t-.vo, an d the smashing <>t eac h haJf 1 in tain. A f terwar d s, free from an- senouf ■listurlvuioe fn>m outside, Paris was to hmv* been besi eged. This point once reac hed (the Kajser is alleged to have tohi the minister cof a neutra l state), France could b- containe d by 500,000 Germans, whilst th*> remainder were whuSKed 3,wia-v for the cam- paign agai nst t.lie Russi ans. This period of expecta-ttion an d suspense whilst the ex- hausted pursuers d pursued alike, had the pause deman d ed by nature to recover their breath, an d Paris was uncover- ing its defences, occupi e d Scene IT. Scene III. w:ts compact with dramatic surprises. Genera l Von Kluck, the ablest lead er ytt revea l ed in the Teuton i c host, and having In his hand s the pick of the latter (including the Prussian Imperial Guard), was en g ag ed in effecting the move- ment to bring ias army into alignment with the centre, w h en Joffre decided that the psychological moment had come for reversing parts. The veteran Genera Pau—w ho had been offered the chief command of the Frenc h Armies, but succee d ed in securing the appointment for bis friend Joffre, plead ing that the latter had a sturdier frame, and tlie temperament and qualities of a great so ldier — was sent north of Paris to effect a wide turn i ng movement, having to his right the British, whilst, reinforcements stiffened the resistance of the French centre. Kluck c l ever l y eva d e d by Irnrd fighting and forced marches the destructive blow aimed at him, but only to see his army poun d e d into a condition of disorder by the Allies bearing against it on two wide?. Desperate efforts on the part. of the GermajM. to ha^- k a way through the French centre failed. <i in the en d three of the Ka i ser's arm i es w- ve involved in the disaster, by which they were forced back pell-mell for a distance of be- tween sixty aftd seventy mile, Time will be required for realising all that, is implied in Joffne's terse an d fai*; fut message, "A nerce battle has ende d in nn incontestable victory for the Allies. Some of the immed iate consequences have been reported in the French capture of the eytire artillery of an army corps that m to say, the guns, a bout 164 in num- ber. which are detachable from a German Army Corps, without denuding any division of the artillery ass i gne d to it ? a un i t— an d in the ca p ture of 6,000 men and 15 guns by the British. There wjll doubtless be substantial additions to these w h en the gleaners oi the harvest yielded by the vic- tory have completed their task. But even the incomplete returns, apart from oti er convinc i ng evi d ence suc h as is afforded f y the complete ta i iure of the German counter- strokes and the a d vance of the Allies a tong the w h o l e line, leave no loophole for doubt regarding the reality of the victory. Of greater va lue, however, than galls or prisoners, is the effeut upon the spirits of tW. riva! ^rmses. We borrowed from onr nearest- the wor d moral (aborn- ing it vf- superfluous e) but have per- verted the meaning to such a degroe that. it is no longer availa b le to convey the j signincancc. so e lus i ve of strict definition with which the Frenc h "mora l e" as lad en.. I Hence the importance of the official "state- ment that the Germans have suffered 1 n mora l e will in a large measure be lost upon readers of Engllish unfamiliar with what it stands for in the military mind, Guns and even men may be rep l ace d lost groun d regained but the "mora l e of an M-my once serious l y sh a k en or impaired J represents an ailmost. irreparable disaster, Tt is a quality difficult to analyse or de- scribe, which connotes more than confid- | ence, courage or powers of endurance. Two armies of substantially the same strength engage zn a battle of hours, or of days, in the course of which the fortunes of the j rivals4 ebb and flow, and up to a point there is not apparently a pin to choose be- I tw<cn Mther side in valour and fSScMncy. I Then one side almost unaccountably breaks —the other has probably est-ablisbeci what Genera; French designates persortal ascendancy "-and henceforward the com- batants who have failed to withstand the strain degenerate fearfuSy, whilst their opponents grow in strength and audacity with every successful blow struck. We have an apt. e-mample in mole peaceful fields of the loss of morale when a foot- ball team, after ma;intaining a stubborn contest for the greater part of the game, suddenly goes to pieces," the phrase has it. The gravest import- i't the Germans of the Allies' incontestable victory in the first great battle of the war consists, nat. in the loss of men and material, but in a demor- alisation which is liable to become infec- tious. It may be argued that retreating under compulsion they are doing only what. the Allies were compelled to do at an earlier stage, and that retreat for the latter a.lso involved losses. True, but the outstanding fact in the ordered retreat of the Allies from the Belgian frontier to Paris was mat their morale" was not affected; the soldiers fell back unbeaten and confident that, the reasons for it were purely .straetgical. Beyond the as- surances of Joffre and French that this -was so we have the actual proof in the success ful rally when it was called for, and in the carrying of the whole front of battle, which achievement was only possible to a soldiery v/hose faith in themselves and their leaders had not been shaken, This cannot be the state If mind--the spiritual condition, a term not to be read in the theological sense—of the Germans, stalemated on their left, and on their centre and right chased for tens of miles. These set out assured of the invincibility of the German war machine to deliver a knock- down blow to the French—and to the Brit- ish Expeditionary Force, this latter a mere incidental effect-center Paris, and come back comfortably in time to crush the Russians, i The right, taking a wider sweep no-ithward, and westward than expected, was to be in front of Paris, the opposing army broken ir- retrievably, in time to receive and co-operate with the other German armies making for the French capital by the two great avenues of approach of Metz and Luxembourg, after overcoming the fortresses of Toui and Ver- dun and destroying the French right and centre. We may be sure that the general scheme became obvious to the German people, who during decades of education have acquired the military sense of perception, to every officer in the German army, and to the bulk of the rank and file, once the lines of the campaign were developed. Conse- quently now. when the seventh week of the war is being entered upon, they are unlikely to over look the deep ign?r?nce of such (Continued at foot of next column.) i
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A new English paper published in Parie is called the "Daily Poøt." It Î8 bound to be a success. Telegraphic war messages amounting to 11,400 words were handled at the "p" offices up to five p.m. on Monday. Drinking shops in Petrograd are be- ing converted into free dining .rooms for the families of soldiers in the field." They do these things differently in Russia, evi- dently. > 0 4 "I ntii more attentiioh is given to the protection of health of the contacts, by the re.movi.l of factors that act upon then), it (.annul Lc claimed that the campaign for stamping out tuberculosis has been placed I on a satisfactory basis."—Dr. Evans, the Swansea Medical Officer of Health, in his report for 1913. I A Few Coriltippers" write There is young, unmarried man, a so-called Syndioai- I ist. employed as a coaitipper on Swansea Docks, who says he would go to gaol rather than enlist. W" would esteem it a favour if you would hring him. into the publicity of your valuable Post- Bag.—Here he iLt. Mifctt: [ >w;uici.v.'s town's meeting on Wednesday evening at the Albert, Hall promises to pro- vide a thrilling rally. It applies the erur preme teak to t.h 1 patriotism of the old tovn. Th. National Anthems of the allied nations ill be p'ayed, and the foremost of < i. 'cutionists will recite the best of patriotic jx>ema. And the pick of local ora-tors will .^peak. For Swansea is out to make good the Mayor's appeal for a striking demonstration <?f Swansea's re?o!ve act to be backward in doing its part at the crisis in the fate of the British Empire. The monied are to finance and the young manhood to fill the ranks of a Swansea, battalion in the great army that is to win assured freedom for the human race, menaced by th "lDIIIiW fist" of Germany. Writing to his parents at 35, Pleasanfe- terrace, Morriston, Mr. Marsden Williams, the well-known Morriston baritone, who now resides ru New York, says that, the Furvpsan War is the sole topic of interest throughout the United States. Feeling Was strongly in favour of the British He also '•ncloted the following paragraph which ap- peared in one of the X ,x York dailies Before » German beer saloon..vOermii f. ¡.{ gathered yesfcecdav afternoon, KJL. gl;il¡l broke !QM bie Wacht am R Two Wèlsh coaj v>s:i«eiv from an English t,ramp ship moored at the foot of,the street were on their way uptown for an evening of plemro. With- out- showing any (nitward signs of the flattie thpt WKS c<>.»isimHng.him, one of the Weish- n-en stepped to the gutter, gathered up a handful of mud, and, walking across the stroet, threw it with the utmost deliberation at the head of the trombone player. Then with the same deliberation he wiped his hinds on his dungarees and rejoined his com- panion. They resumed their stroll, but the German band was thrown into confusion. The tune stepped abruptly and the musi- cians adjourned, into the saloon to refit."
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(Continued from preceding column.) iact-s to them as the tethering of the German left to the Vosges and 'the still unbeaten Verdun and Nancy—the latter, by the way, being outside the main line of the French frontier defences, never expected to long withstand attack—the failure of the centre not. only to advance but to resist the press- ure driving it back, and the utta, collapse of the German right, from which so much was expected. The time-table, revised because of Belgium resistance and the interposition of Great Britain, provided-a.t least the C-cennans were encouraged to think so-for the oc-cupation of Paris on the 2nd Septem- ber and a parade of German troops in Hyde Park on Sunday last. Whereas the nearest Gierman force to Paris is a hundred mile-8 away with its face turned towards Ber- lin, and on Sunda,v-as the writer can per- sonally vouch, judging by what he saw there on Friday—Hyde Park was occupied mainly by the customary army of nurse- maids and babies, and the nearest approach to a gun carriage was the perambulator. To the German people in the ranks or outside them, more learned than most in the science of war, a subject obtruded upon them incessantly, the circumstance that the official reports—which in their mendacity indicate the wide difference between the Germany of 1914 and that of 1870-1, whea the old Empexor and Bismarck were agreed m giving the people the naked truth-have not for nearly a week had any reference to I operations in France; that there has been no announcement of an advance on the Ger- man left wing or the surrender of any French fortress sihee the capture of Lune- ville At a murderoius prices—not even of Maubeuge. a place of third-rate importance but with a wonderfully consistent record of heroic defence extending over four centuries —or of the entry into raris, or at least its investment, must make them ponder. There must be at least a glim- mer of suspicion entering the German mind by this time that the plan of the General Staff has miscarried, else why is Paris un- t,ahn and the Anglo-French armies not yet pulverised, when the Russians, advancing from vidory to victory over the Austrians, arc heading straight for Vienna, possibly only for a halt- there to make preparations for tbe further journey via, Dresden to Ber- lin? Between British command of the sea itnd Russian predominance on land, Ger- many is finding itself in the teeth of a clOlil- ing VIce. The peace of the wofld and the over- throw of the militarism for which Germany is mainly responsible demand that this must be a fight to a finish. There cannot and will not be any compromise until Germany, which has menaced the world for decades, has been beaten to her knees. The discom- fiture of her armies in France does not mean that. Even if driven from French and Bel- gian soil, they may be trusted to resist tena- ciously the counter-invasion, supported by the strongholds of Metz, Strassburg, and Cologne. Nevertheless we have with car Allies to steer straight for the end, whatever sa-erifices may have to be made, of disposing once for all of the Kaiser pest that ha.&* long afflicted the civilised world.