ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE DEVELOPING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2404, 9 March 1915, Page 5

ANOTHER GREAT BATTLE DEVELOPING

THE WAR IN POLAND

DISASTER TO THE AUSTRIANS

Patrograd, March 7. Official.—"The enemy has been dislodged from the heights northward of Lomza (on the Narew, 20 miles south of the East Prussian frontier)."

The Prime Minister has received the following cablegram from the High Commissioner, dated-London March 8, 4.5 p.m.:— Petrograd reports"The Russian offensive operations continue along the left bank of the Niemen and north-west of Grodno.

"The Germans have been driven back behind the Sopockine-Lypak front. "In the Mlawa district, the Russian attacks have been crowned with success. Six hundred prisoners have been taken.' "On the left bank of the Vistula, in the region of Pilica, the fighting is assuming the character of a great battle."

"SENSELESS AND CRIMINAL SAORIFICE OF MEN."-

(Rec. March 8, 6 p.m.) _ London, Maroh' 8. A Russian artillery officer, writing of the Germans' temporary advantage in East Prussia, says: "If I had been in authority I would simply have hanged their commanders, because of their senseless and criminal 6acrifioe of troops at this fight. We drenched their charging massed columns with shrapnel, and still they came on. Then we used case-shot, keeping up au incessant fire until dead were piled in heaps—from three to four, thousand. Half an hour later a second attack was repulsed, and before dusk' a third, with the same result. The slaughter caused a feeling of nausea, and we marvelled at the stupidity of their efforts to face a fire against which they were powerless. They were swept away like the ash from a cigarette."

THE WAR IN THE BUKOWINA

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ARMY IN FULL RETREAT,

Rome, March 7. The Austro-Hungarian army in Bukowina, under two German generals, is in full retreat. The men are'deserting, and prisoners are being taken in hundreds. ' (Rec. Maroh 8,11.15 p.m.)

Potrograd, March 8. Official.—"The Austrians tried to oross to the right bank of the San, southwest of Lutovisk. The units which crossed were annihilated."

REIGN OF TERROR IN THE OROWNLAND,

London, MarcE 6. The "Daily Chronicle's" correspondent at Novoselitza states that a reign of terror exists in Bukowina. Spies swarm in the province, denouncing innocent people with Rumanian sympathies and extorting, money by threats and denunciation. There have been wholesale executions in Czernowitz. Noh-Aug-trians fled, fearing persecution. , THE BUKOWINA, AND ITS RELATIVE VALUE The Bukowina Crown land of Austria is'sandwiched in between the Province of Galioia and t'he north-western frontier of Rumania. Bukowina means the country of the beech trees, and a great portion of it is forest olad, for it lies amongst the southern spurs of the woody Carpathians. Czernowitz, its capital,- has about 70,000 inhabitants, and the population of the-Duchy is some three-qjiarters of a million., Of these about 40 per cent, are Ruthenes, and nearly another 40 per cent, are Rumanians, the balance being made up of the usual Balko-Hungarian mixture, Magyyars, Germans, Poles, Jews, and gipsies. The Ruthenes and the Rumanians belong to the Orthodox Church, and therefore t'he vast majority of _ the inhabitants hold with Rumania and with Russia in the matter of religion. The Rumanian peoples in the Bukowina and in Transylvania aro not, as might be supposed, settlers who have; overflowed across the Rumanian frontier. They have their roots deep in history. Rumania herself is a geographical anomaly, and it is very curious to find a Latin enclave in Eastern Europe surrounded on all sides by Slavs and Hungarians. The Rumanians speak a Latin tongue closel.y resembling Italian.

The Russians occupied the Bukowina in 1769, hut they restored it to tho Turks when peace was made in 1774. Austria"had been much perturbed by this occupation, and made great: show of her anxiety for its restitution to Turkey. But this friendliness was by no means disinterested, for she promptly set up an intrigue to secure it for herself, and in 1777 the Porte ceded it to her. Since then it has remained in Austrian hands. The. fact that the Russians have already overrun the Duchy is not - oausing auxiety to Rumanian statesmen. Winter has delayed Rumanian action, but the mountain passes that lead into Hungary will be free from snow even in this bad season by March 1. If the Russian advance continues successfully Russian troops should soon be pouring through the Bistritz district, north of Transylvania. It is here in Transylvania that the Rumanian Army may be expected to join them, and if such a junction takes place it is difficult to see how the Allies are to be prevented from reaching Budapest. The Carpathians and the Transylvanian Alps are Hungary's bulwarks. For the rest she is an open plain.