Eastern News

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 83, 6 August 1915, Page 5

Eastern News

Warsaw In Enemy's Hands

Extraordinary Press Association. (Received 8.30 a.m.) Berlin, August 5. Official.—Warsaw Has been taken. CITY OCCUPIED ON THURSDAY. FLOOD OF GERMAN WOUNDED FILLS THE HOSPITALS. RUSSIANS CONTESTING EVERY YARD. (Received 11.5 a.m.) Amsterdam, August 5. It is reported in Berlin that Prince Leopold of Bavaria's army on Wednesday night captured the outer and inner line of forts at Warsaw, the Russian rearguards stubbornly resisting. The Germans occupied the city on Thursday morning. Many buildings at Konigsberg have been converted into hospitals to accommodate the flood of wounded from the east front. The Russians are contesting every yard and inflicting terrible losses. All the towns of East Prussia are overflowing with wounded.

(WaiWw was once the capital oi' Poland, and is now the chief city of the Russian province of that name. It stands on the river Vistula, some 330 miles east of Berlin, and has a population exceeding 700,000. one third of whom are .lews. It has many fine palaces and mansions. As a manufacturing town, a railway centre, and a military centre, it stands easily, first in south-west Russia. The various revolutionary movements in Poland have usually had their headquarters in Warsaw. In 1772, Poland having been greatly weakened by civil strife, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, formed a league for its partition. They seTzed one-third of Poland, and divided it among them. Over the remainder, the real authority was in the hands of a Russian envoy, resident at Warsaw, the capital. In 1793, Russia and Prussia took advantage of the disturbed state of Europe to effect a further partition of Poland. The Poles rose in arms under Kosciusko, to recover their independence. After several successes they were defeated, and Kosciusko was taken prisoner. Warsaw was captured, and the patriots were massacred at the bridge of Praga. This led to the final partition of Poland in 1795. In his great poem entitled "On the downfall of Poland,"- Thomas Campbell wrote some stirring lines, two of which are worthy of repetition at this period: "Hope for a season bade .the word farewell, and Freedom shrieked—as Kosciusko fell!" In 1832, Poland, as an independent State ,was abolished, and swallowed up in Russia, by an edict of the Czar). SCARE REPORT DENIED. • Received 9.. ") a.m.) Petrograd, August •". The War Office denies that the Government issued an official Note ol; any kind regarding the desira-i baity of oii Allied offensive in the, West,