NEW MOVE FAILS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2272, 5 October 1914, Page 5

NEW MOVE FAILS

"THE DEBACLE HAS COMMENCED" , BATTLE OF CRACOW ; ; BEGINS BRILLIANT ADVANCE OF RUSSIANS , MORE GERMAN ' DISASTERS SEA RAIDS IN ' THE PACIFIC AND GNEISENAU -AT ; y PAPEETE FRENCH GUNBOAT SUNK • There is an abundance of evidence in to-day's news from the French theatre of war that the situation of the German Army is rapidly becoming extremely desperate and critical. General \on Kluck's army on the right, heavily reinforced, has made a series of violent, and 60 far ineffective, attempts to break down' the pressure of the stubborn line of the Allies. If the words of various correspondents are to be "believed, the German Eight, which up till now has been faoing west, now faces north-west, having been bent back by the pressure of the Allied Left; the breakdown of the German commissariat is materialising and "the debacle has commenced." The German newspapers, to judge from the '-Berliner Tageblatt," are depressed in , tone, admitting the seriousness of the situation, but endeavouring to 1 inspire hope by, vague, references to the protection, which the echelon plan of the German dispositions in the field may afford in the event of a, general retreat. Along the remainder •of the Aisne battlefront the situation is very'little changed.-Operations on a. gigantic scale are now reported from the eastern, theatre; the Russian Armies operating against East Prussia have been signally successful in upsetting the plans of the" Germans for delaying their advance in order to embarrass the operations' in Galicia, The enemy has been bogged, trapped, cut off, and in all manner of ways out-manoeuvred, with heavy loss of men and munitions Southward, the 'Eussians, having effectively masked Przemysl, have now advanced a imee array against Cracow, which is stated to be defended by in. Austr "German army of 2£. millions.. A battle has begun, and itß development may prove to bo the most stupendous conflict of the campaign in that theatre., In Belgium sharp fighting continues, and the Germans seam to be faring very badly in their numerous encounters with the plucky defenders of Antwerp. On the high seaß, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, two fairly formidable cruisers whioh are flying the German flag in the Pacific have visited Tahiti (not very far from Rarotonga),' bombarded Papeete, the chief port, and sunk the French gunboat Zeleei; the Leipzig, off the South American coat, has 6unk a . British trader; a small British ship, bound from Hull to Antwerp, has been mined'and sunk;-and a French warship has bombarded and sunk,two German auxiliary cruisers. The most unsatisfactory piece of news is the cabled statement from Sir George Reid, the Australian ' High Commissioner, to his Government, that the report of Earl Kitchener's . speech conveying the Commander-in-Chief's opinion that the .war would not last long was not correct.