PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2417, 24 March 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

The fall of Przemysl, the great Galician' fortress which has at length surrendered to the Russians after a siege begun in September last, is an event of very great importance in its bearing upon tho" campaign in Galicia. While the fortress held out there was always a possibility that its garrison might be relieved by an Austrian or' Austro-German force striking north from tho Carpathians, in which event the position of tho Russian Army advancing westward upon Cracow would at once have become exceedingly precarious. Freed of this danger the Russians will now be ablo to prosecute their Western advancc with augmented confidence, and Przemysl, instead of being, from their point of view, a weak spot demanding the undivided attention of an investing army, will serve as a useful base for the armies operating in West and South. The whole of Galicia, exospt the limited western area in which Cracow is situated, is now in Russian hands, and the possession of Przemysl will enable the invading armies to make use of additional railways which it dominates. The. release of the investing army, of course, involves a valuable accession of strength to the Russian forces in the field. * * # ' * Veky little news has been allowed" to escape concerning the progress of the siege, but tho mere fact that it continued so long affords sufficient evidence that the Austrian garrison offered a stout resistance to the investing force. _ Besieged since September last, with a brief respite in the following month, when an Au<r tro-German offensive enforced a general Russian they not only held the fortress until a day or two ago, but made repeated sorties, some of which were pressed with 9bstinate gallantry. Though the city of Przemysl is not of great size—it has a civilian population of about 50,000—the fgrtress is one of the strongest in Salicia. It consists of a ring of forts linked and protected by strong entrenchments, and equipped with modern artillery. The task of'' capturing the placo by assault would no doubt have been as difficult as that of penetrating the German fortified lines in France and Flanders, and it is quite likely that the Russians were unprovided with the powerful artillery which is essential to the reduction of a stronghold of this character. In addition they may have been unwilling to offend Polish sentiment by battering the place to pieces, when they had the alternative of starving the garrison into submission as has now been done. From the fact that the garrison has been reduced from an original strength of 80,000 men to 25,000, it may bo gathered that it has gallantly endured terrible privations. Large numbers of men wero lost in succcssiyc sorties, but disease and sickness probably accounted for the greater proportion. » * * * Now that Przemysl is disposed of the last stronghold remaining to the Austro-Germans in Galicia is Cracow. At last reports tho Russians were still some forty miles to tho eastward of this fortress, but s they are now in a position to press forward with clear lines of communication in rear and will no doubt profit by the fact to redouble their efforts to reach and master this last remaining obstacle to the,ir_ advance upon the frontiers of Silesia, thirty miles ' further on. liven with Przemysl still holding out Cracow and Silesia were imminently threatened and now that the Russians aro in undisputed command of Galicia right up to tlie. line of" their Western advance the position is, of course, greatly intensified. * « * * A late message explains that the surrender of the Austria ns at Przemysl was hastened by the Busfiian? capturing a hill from which , their gujiß dominated the town, but

it is added that the garrison was so depleted as to be unable to defend the whole of the twenty-five mile perimeter of the fortifications. The Russians bear testimony t6 the gnllanfc resistance of the garrison, even when hope of relief had been abandoned and in spite of famine and the ravages of disease.

At the moment there is an absencc Df news concerning developments on the long' line of battle running through Contra] unci Southern Poland and Western Galicia, and almost as little is said about operations in the extreme north where tho llussiaus are closing in upon the East Prussian frontier. A German official message states that the Russians were expelled from Memel (tho Baltic port at tho northern end of Bast Prussia) after obstinate street fighting, but this is probably only the first portion of the story already told by the Russians in announcing the capture of the place. Their official report stated that they retired after being fired on in the streets and then bombarded the town into submission before finally taking possession. Another message to-day emphasises the difficulties which will be encountered by the Germans if they attempt to rccapture Memel owing to tho nature of the coast making an advance from the south impossible and rendering it necessary to land a force from the sea. A glance at the map will show the grounds upon which this N opinion is based. Memel stands on the coast towards the end of a long and narrow northerly projection of East Prussia, and immediately south of the town extends the Kurische Haff, a coastal lagoon fifty miles in length. As the Russians are now placed along the the northern border of East Prussia they should be easily able to drive back any German force at-' tempting to advance along the narrow neck of laud upon which Memel stands.

It is by no means impossible that tho Russians entered Memef in the hope of drawing the German Fleet out of its retirement. It has a passago into the Baltic by the Kiel Ctnal and so far as strength of artillery goes could no douot easily cover the landing of a force at Memel. Shore batteries, however, would probably bo the least of the troubles of the German warships if they ventured on such an excursion. The Russians have a fairly strong force of submarines in the Baltic, including a dozen boats of modern type recently added to their flotillas, and British submarines might also manage to find a way into the Baltic and assist. Some of the passages connecting the Baltic with the North Sea aro necessarily clear of mine-fields to afford passage to neutral shipping. A foray by the German Fleet into the Baltic would thus open up possibilities of a very different kind of submarine warfare to that which the Germans have lately been waging on merchant shipand sinco the Gorman Admiralty is well aware of the fact it is hardly likely that the foray will be made. In any case, the choice of the Germans seems to bo between leaving the Russians in undisturbed possession of their northern territory or exposing their warships to all the dangers of submarine attack. If they elect to keep their ships in port still another convincing demonstration will be afforded of the fact that the German Navy can purchase safety only at the humiliating cost of helpless inactivity.

The latest reports concerning the operations in the Dardanelles are chiefly interesting as suggesting that the land forces co-operating with the Allied Fleet are likely to play an important part. It has been demonstrated that the naval guns are able to copo on more than equal terms with, those of the forts and shore batteries, but making every possible allowance for the inferiority of the Turkish artillery, the task of forcing the Strait by naval bombardment alone is _ bound to be attended by extreme difficulty, complicated as it is by the presence of mine-fields, which have to be removed piecemeal, and torpedo tubes along the shores of The Narrows which arc the immediate point of attack. The work of the warships will in any case_ be greatly lightened if they are assisted, by land forces equipped with artillery powerful enough to effectively attack the forts in rear. Official reticence is maintained as fo what preparations of this kind are being made, but from the mention of "landing parties" it may be assumed that land forces on both sides of the Strait will co-oper-ate with the bombarding Fleet. Presumably these forces will be in considerable strength. The greatest problem will probably bo that > of transporting artillery of sufficient weight and power to put the forts out of action.

Fragments of news from the Western theatre to-day disclose little change of position, but at various points along the front _ the Allies have prevailed in the minor actions which are continually taking place, Near Badonvillers the French are pressing an attack on the border of Alsace, opposite Strassburg, and have made some headway. At Notre Dame de Lorette, a few miles south of La Bassee, trenches recently taken from the Germans are .being firmly held and a similar position obtains at Les Eparges, south-east of Verdun, where the Allies have defeated repeated efforts by the enemy to regain ground which they lately lost. Siege warfare continues the order of the day, but apparently where any change of position has occurred the advantage has uniformly been with the Allies.