SECOND GREAT RUSSIAN VICTORY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2253, 12 September 1914, Page 7

SECOND GREAT RUSSIAN VICTORY

N ■ ♦ COMPLETE DEFEAT OF THE ' , ' , AUSTEIANS. GERMANY INVADED ' RUSSIAN- 'MARCH- TOWARDS BERLIN • GERMAN RETREAT 'IN • FRANCE : ALLIES PRESSING HARD BRITAIN RAISING ARMY OF 1,200,000. ' - i The great and psychological events, strategically ~ speaking, of the , news from the war in Europe to-day is the complete and crushing defeat of the Austrian Army by the Russians at Lublin, in Russian Poland, and the evacuation of the great fortress of Cracow. The 'Austrians are demoralised, and there are wholesale desertions. The Russians are now astride a trunk line to Breslau, the great railway , centre' some 50 miles over the border into Prussia, and the fall of that position is reported to be imminent. The objective of the Russian Main Advance is now stated to bo Berlin. The approaching frosts of early winter will harden the soggy'marshy ground, facilitating the ! transport of heavy war material, and the reported concentration, of 12 or 13 German army corps' in that region of the war indicates an \ oarly development of tho main conflict between the Germans and. the Russians. Meanwhile, in France, the Allied line is slowly and steadily pressing back the lino of the invaders. There is appaiently a fairly thick fog of war over tho plan of campaign in that theatre of the operations, for the military critics confess to some bewilderment as to < the' ulterior reason for the falling back of the Germans all along the '' line. In the north, the Belgian Army has made a vigorous and successful sortie from Antwerp, to the practical discomfiture of tho Germans. The presence of the enemy in northern. Belgium is stated to be causing cohsider- "' able alarm, and the Dutch Government has ordered certain towns in Holland to be put in a state of siege. .Field-Marshal Sir John French, Commander of the British Expeditionary Force in France, has . to the Government his official account of the British retirement from Mons southward, and his story, told in restrained and dignified language, adds-another chapter to the glorious, annals of the British Army. It is clear ■that during that critical and trying period, when French roinforoementg were unavailable, the British Army was - in desperate straits, and had literally to fight for its very existence, , and only by desperate and heroic valour'did our troops escape annihilation ,by overwhelming masses of tho Germans. In, the British 1 House of Commons Mr. Asquith, tho Prime Minister, warmly seconded , '- by Mr. Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition, has declared the Gov- ' ernment's intention to put 1,200,000 men in the field, and see the business right through. In South Africa, General Botha, our late ad--1 versary in the Boer war, has delivered a stirring speech of loyalty, and his expressed determination to use all possible efforts to assist the Empire ,in the hour of need evoked cheers in the Union Parliament.