TWENTY ARMY CORPS ON THE POLISH FRONT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2337, 19 December 1914, Page 5

TWENTY ARMY CORPS ON THE POLISH FRONT

FLANKING OPERATIONS BY GERMANS AUSTRIANS CROSS THE CARPATHIAN PASSES ■ m . ■ _ ~ PBtrograd, December. 17. liie German flanking operations in the Carpathians and on the Vistula are being conducted on an immense scale. With reinforcements, General von Hindenberg has now twenty army corps on the Polish front, enabling him to send two arnvy corps to Hungary.. One hundred and seventy thousand Austro-Germans have crossed tho Carpathian passes. They include three Austrian corps recently withdrawn from Servia. ' , EQUANIMITY: OF RUSSIAN COMMANDER, London, December 17. Vetrograd reports state that 'Austrian columns are pouring over the Dukla passes into Galicia. The Grand Duke Nicholas (Russian Commander-in-Chief) records the faot without comment, and military opinion fully endorses his attitude of complete equanimity. [The Dukla passes are about twenty miles westward of the Mezo Laborcz, which is due south of the junction of the San and the Vistula.WTimes," and Sydney "Sun" Services.. A AUSTRIANS CLAIM'.TO HAVE-CAPTURED A'TOWN; ' London, December 17. An Austrian communique states: —"Wo are pursuing the Russians on the eHtire front in Galicia and South Poland. We advanced to Zakliczyn, and have recaptured Boohnia. "The Russians have not yet abandoned' the advance on the Mezo 'Laborcz Valley 6, in the Carpathians." Zakliczyn is a town seventeen miles south-east of Boohnia, which is on the railway, a few miles east of Cracow. Thews towns are'within easy distance of Rajbrot and Niepolowice, mentioned yesterday as marking a line reached by the enemy. The Mezo Laborcz is a pass over the Carpathians, 100 miles due south of the junction of the Vistula and San Rivers, ' . HOSTILE DEMONSTRATIONS IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, London, December 17. Router's agent states, that Servia's viotory provoked a demonstration in the large cities of Austria-Hungary against the methods of carrying on the war, and denouncing General Potoriek.' The police at Budapest'dispersed the demonstrators. Details of the rout show that France supplied Servia with 68veral of tho most modern batteries and an abundance of ammunition. The Austrians lost two entire army corps in casualties and prisoners. The latter include four hundred Italians, whom Servia has offered to send to Italy. The prisoners tell heartrending stories of their hardships. A number died from exhaustion and the effects of frost. Many were without food for eeventytwe hours. Many Servians are also in a pitiable plight owing to the lack of hospital appliances. THE AUSTRIAN DEBACLE IN SERVIA, . ' , (Reo. December 18, 5.45 p.m.) London, December 17. Along the trail of the Austrian Army in Servia there are myriad evidences of the completeness of the debacle. The roads are strewn with impedimenta and corpses. , All the unoccupied houses and shops have been looted, and the, most striking feature is their appalling filthiness. Houses which the Austrians occupied as hospitals, and containing th ree thousand wounded, at Valjevo, resemble manure-heaps. It was impossible to enter them owing to the stench.— "Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services. ' ■ RUMOURS OF PEACE PROPOSALS BY AUSTRIA^. ' > : London, December 17, A Geneva newspaper states that it is rumoured that Austria appealed to Russia for peace, and that Russia, in replying, demanded the surrender of Galicia to Poland—both becoming a kingdom under the Tsar—the surrender of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Servia and Montenegro, Austria's withdrawal from the Triple Alliance, and the constitution of Austro-Hungary into Federal States, one of which would be an autonomous Bohemia. Austria, adds the paper, considered the conditions too' hard, and discontinued negotiations. DEFEATED GERMANS VIGOROUSLY PURSUED NO IMPORTANT ENGAGEMENTS IN GALICIA, ■ •■ '. (Reo. December 18, 11.45 p.m.) ~« • , ™. '•» • ■ ± , «,■ PBtrograd, Deoember 18. Official.—The Russians towards Mlava are vigorously pursuing the defeated Germans, a large number of whom crossed the frontier. Wo captured prisoners and several guns. . ■• There has been no engagement of importance on the left bank' of the Vistula or in Galicia, ENORMOUS LOSSES ON tfHE POLAND FRONTIER. i (Rec. December 19, 1.25 a.m.) '■.'.. u.- r ,-u/. , •' „ Pet|, °grad, December 18. It is estimated that the German losses in the Lodz district in killed wounded, and prisoners'totalled 160,000, and the Russian losses 120 000 ' Prisoners state that' the Kaiser ordered Warsaw to be taken at all costs