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I RUSSIA'S HANDS FULL

BULLETS AND THEIR IWOUNDS.…

! FI LM-EN!-RK.I

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H'USSIA on Grand Duke's Programme. The Fear Upon Germany. Germany's urst victims of .sobmarin«-» warfare since the blockade of Eng- land was proclaimed in the Norwegian steamer Belridge, torpedoed off Folke- stone. V French steamer was a hu torpedoed. Both ships have reached jWt. Sir Edward Grey ha? sent a memorandum, to the American Government, justifying the use of the neutral flag by British ships in order to escape destruction. The second of the two German airships wrecked on the Danish coast, was the L.IV.. a super-Zeppelin of the latest type. She succumbed to a snowstorm.' Tho text is issued M two historic letters which passed between King George and President Poiueare on the eve of the war. They show that down to the last moment (,f¡, which were unfortu- nately foiled, were made to preserve -were iiiacie ir) pi-c-?eu%e The Fussion situation is discussed below. A warning is given not to accept the reports now being issued from Berlin. THE RUSSIAN RETIREMENT. QO long as the Russian armies are held together Russia in unconquerable. In the illimitable spaces behind his armies the Grand Duke can rind constantly good positions prepared in advance, and as the Russians retire they will offer more resist- ance, like a spring that is compressed, while the enemy will encounter ever- increasing difficulties from a hostile popu- lation, broken communicai ions. and a country swept clear of supplies. This is the conclusion come to by Colonel Repington, who in the Times to-day. discusses the new situation in the eastern war theatre. He warns us that we must not allow our minds to be influenced by reports of German origin which pretend that all sorts of disasters have over- whelmed the Russians in East Prussia. Mendacious and Coloured. All German official news of late has been mendacious, and coloured to en- courage the German people and affect the opinions of neutrals. Even if we accept the German report, that 60 Russian guns have been captured, these only represent the artillery of a sintrle division, and tho Germans boast that they defeated 11 Russian divisions, which may very well have had 700 guns amongst them. AVe must there- fore believe (says the military corre- spondent) that the Russian retire.menr was orderly and by no means a rout. It was in accordance with common sense that the Grand Duke, finding himself faced b* y an unexpected hostile concen- tration. should have temporarily post- 1,1(-T-111,11 his offensive in East Prussia and have drawn back his troops to a prepared line of defence upon which these troops can lie n}C\t easilv and rapidlv reinforced. In these last ten day-, this operation has been iu progress and we can feel confident that the Grand Duke will have taken those measures which the situation de- mands. The Situation Surveyed, Nothing that has yet happened affects in v-rious dc-ree the. situation el ih", Russian armies. Ail the centre ol the> long Russian line from Warsaw to the middle Carpathians remains formidable and intact. The. Austrian irruption id to Bukowiua has, it is true, temporarily re- taken tii!F, province, thanks largely to the men from the-Tyrol and the \oralberg, who are among the best of tb« Austrian troops and are experts in hill fighting, but tho military resources of south-wes- tern Russia should allow this loss to bo retrieved, and this Austrian offensive which will entail immense difficulties in regard to communication and supply, h;1i" not vet reached a point where it (:;11) vitallv affect the operation? in Uahcia. and still less those in Poland and the orth. BATTLE IN A WILDERNESS. A T present tho sceue of fiercest fight- ..¡ ing is the .immense wilderness which lie: between the Niemen and Augustovo, and which from eaft I" west, extends without a break for a distance of thirty or forty miles. This vacit expanse of forest and swamp, tho Petrograd T. r pondent. of the Daily Telegraph says, j has already once been the theatre of fctrugg'lc. for it was here that the Ger- mans offered the most; obstinate resist-1 ailee when they were, being flung back i ,r(,.m their firkt attack on the Niemen. During the two or three weeks of in- cessavit fighting, which on that occasion j took place in the Augustovo forest, rain fell in torrents, and the. swamp which normally forms a considerable portion of j the region became universal. The Frontier Fighting. Now the are. very different, The thaw of the first three days of this i woek came to an abrupt end with a thermometric drop of 4ftdcg. Fahrenheit in twenty-fonr honff, ami a sharpish frost now prevails, it Las- b-en sng- ■ gested that the Germans are relying on. the frozen tstafo of the Niemen and the: Bohr swamps iu this latest plunge at the main line of the Russian communication. Possibly these favour tiwir plant-, but on j the other hand, our Allies undoubtedly i bear the cold much better ihan they. So. far the lvittle on the. East Prussian fron- j ier i? apparently only in the ?ta?e of d?- velopmcnt. and i?me day? will probably j elapso before it is possible to give defi- ui 1 o news as to its issue. 141LAIRE BELLOC AND A DRAW." 1\TR. illLAIRE BELLOC continues in he argues that a draw to the war would be impossible, and, for this country, fatal. To those who use the argument that after so appalling a strain exhal-iitj()il would forbid to Prussia, as much as to ¡he Allies a renewal of hostilities Mr. Belloc replies that in international affairs IIlO:;t things are done without, actual tscourse to arms. Prussia out of Alsace-^Lorraine, consenting to relax ia some measure her obscene tyrannies in Poland, and even accepting a general scheme of disarma- ment—but still somewhere or somehow in Belgium-would be a Prussia acceptable enough to most of the Continent, but would be a Prussia- still in a position to press such continued demands upon Great Britain as would either grow intolerable, I or, if accepted, would involve the rapid decline of this country. The Line of the Rhine. lir. Belloc says that the enemy will probably suggest a draw when he feels the necessity of abandoning the Belgian plain. It his demand is withstood his further chances/will get worse and worse very rapidly. If he cannot hold his present "lengthy line in the Wost lie cannot frilly hold the line of the Paine, which is lohj'er still. His industrial di&tricte—the I two principal orcs. at Past- lie expoeetj upon the edges of his territory, and if it be argued that their occupation w-->uld only enfeeble him and not; destroy him, it sliould be pointed out, that be will ha left to the task of maintaining and foed- in t heir population for that population '11 not be suffered to remain when tlm invasion be^-ius. Meanwhile, upon tbos« industrial district*, he it- ai)sotllwlv (pondent for certain things winch are ,L;;1 1 absolutely necessary to 111. conduct oi modern war. j Three Possible Settlements. Th?rp are (concludes th« vrit?r) ?Ti'? three settlements etat?pman&hip can ((HI" template: U) A defeat of the AIL.. with the probable decline of all that A-t call our civilisation and certain immedi- ate disaster to this country; (2) a defeat iof the Prussianised German Empire S,31 thorough as to forbid its reappearance in arms and the extirpation from Europe of iU abominable, morals; (.3) a prolonged j war remaining inconclusive for such a ispace of time that our civilisation shall | fail under it as suroly though, less con- temptibly than it would under tbet blundering attempts of Oenoan guidance, Of these three issues the last eoenis to m by far the loa.5t probable; next, thfs ifirst; and, most likely of tho three, tho sec-orid. But. that statesmanship can only con* j template one 01 these three issues; poli- tical and financial intrigue (they am tjvday one and the same thing) may] contemplate a fourth, to wit, the accept* ance, within a few months, of an lncoll. j elusive peace—the "draw." It ia .against such a folly that I have lseia j argued to the plain citizen. THE GREAT FEAR. XTO. says A.G G. in concluding hi* Saturday article in the "Daily SeVi," we need not suppose that Germany is cr>- iug Wolf." without cause. The grata 1:)r has come upon her. It is reflected ia those letters, found on (xcrman prisoner*, which Eye-Witness published this week: it is permeating the Press; it emerges gauntly from the very of i the situation. I see that it is said thAt if ] the Fear were, real the German. General Staff would take care, to hl(\» knowledge so valuable to the enemy. Them I are some things too big to hide. Wa might as-, woli try to hide from Germany the' fpirt that our own prices are rising. I If a nat-ion of seventy million people n .drifting towards starvation the. truth will out in spite of all tho teener; Staffs thatj ever sought to its lips. A Sort of Blind Fury. I The crisis may not, be near: hut tlifya mere knowledge, that, it is approae.hin-, | the mere spectacle of those daily rfueue:j jat thp bikers' shops—the griiu reminder i of the sinister bread ticket—all this 1 striking at the heart: of Germanv's mc-ste .-vital line of defence, the confidence a up j moral of the nation. It is this that i*< sending her ship of State plunging toward* the breakers with a sort of blind fury the fury that is born of the knowl«h<» I-Itaf, tiip, adventure has tailed and tila doom is assured. IN THE WRONG TRENCH, I "IfE difficulty of finding the right trench on a pitch dark night is nr, uncommon, bnt it is surely seldom thab an experience similar to thai, dot&iied by. an otncer in a Cornish regiment can hap- pen. Lie .;).Y5 in a letter home that, hav- ing been ordered to relieve a certain regi- ment, he sot off with guides and g-ot. ton the wrong trench, and found nobody who could direct him and his men to the right "no: so with nnn of his privates he wnt h¡ek and found th? commanding ofEcpr of the i??hn?nt he should have r?H?v?l. Th« latter said lif, had two men with him. would show him the proper destination. The letter continues: Who You Vas? So off the four of us started to collect my men from the wrong one. It was oow: j darker than ever and raining in torrents, We went, ve.rv- .slowly, keeping together all' | the time. In the darkness we missed the trench we were aiming for--it must havf* been by inches—and walked on until I came to one. All four of us were -stand- ing on the parapet and looking down into the trench. I said quite low but dis- tinctly. Who are and was greeted by Who yon vasr" also what —— said afterward s sounded like, ala- baster^" We could have shaken hands wth them, but did not wait to pay them that courtesy, but bolted for all we worn worh. They opened a point blank fire at us, but of course we were peon out of ■sight, and we had' a merciful escape. Head Over Heels. In our headlong flight vA luckilj tumbled head over heek into the trench wherfl I had left my mn-thy haviti" heard and seen nothing of what waj going on 40 yards ahead of them. Well, to cut a Ion? story short, we put our- selves under our two guides from tllft other regiment, and at 3.30 a.m. arrived at tho right trench. It is a terrible thing this wandering about over totally unknown ground, and of course always, by night time, and I think it is responsible- for a great numlvr of the missing one sees in till lists. There is obviously no other of doing it. HYMN IN TIME OF WAR, 0 God. to Whom our fathers prayed. When in their darkest hour Thy Hand the great Armada. stayed, And broke Napoleon's power, Grant, as our sons go forth, 0 Lord. To battlp, in the field. Not pride, but duty, be the word Engrayen on their shield. Thou knowest. Lord, we count no cost Of sorrow or of pain, If only those we loved and lost Shall not have died in vain. We should not dare. 0 God. to pray, Our pravers would be as naught, Had we not faith we fight to-day For all Thy Word has taught. Grant that Thy Spirit, Lord of Lif% Move o'er the embattled plain. Till from the chaos of its strife Thy worid be born again And to this land which Thou hast malt., So fair and free and strong, God of our fathers! lend Thine To war against the wrong; For false and feeble is the sword Unsheathed in tyrant might. But. if our cause be righteous. Lord, Thou wilt defend the right — Tunett.