The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1917. SIGNIFICANCE OF RECENT FIGHTING.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 13 July 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1917. SIGNIFICANCE OF RECENT FIGHTING.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News),

Since the commencement of their offensive in Galicia the Russians have captured nearly forty thousand prisoners, with the proportionate number of guns and quantity of war material, and have also put some hundred thousand Austro-German troops out of action. They have completely broken the enemy front, separating the northern army from the southern, and their cavalry is 'through the opening pursuing the routed and fleeing enemy.. giving no opportunity ,to rally and make any stand against the elated, victorious pursuers. This great battle is the flrst since the Czar of Russia was dethroned, and the first effort against the invaders of their country since a people’s government took on the direction of the destinies of all the Russias. Consequently, it is reasonable to look for and discover innovations of .one kind or another. One of the most remarkable phases of this amazingly successful offensive is that it is something more than an offensive. It seems that it is almost as much a recruiting venture as anything else, for it is officially recorded that all the Czechs captured, immediately asked" that they be allowed to fight against their hitherto compulsory comrades, and what is equally surprising is that the confidence displayed in the bona tides of these men seems to indicate there was some pre-arranged understanding, otherwise it would be hard to believe that such absolute trust would be placed in them as to straightway draft them into Russian regiments. This extraordinary recruiting of well-trained veteran soldiers does not end with the Czechs captured; the Roumanes of the Austria’n army, who hall from the Transylvanian plains, just over the hills separating Roumania from Hungarian territory, are also asking to be allowed to fight with their brothers in the Roumanian army. Not only those Roumanes of recent capture, but also some thirty of forty thousand prisoners taken in pre-rev-olution days have made an appeal to be allowed to fight for their own country, and it is officially announced that the first battalion of these prisoners has reached the Roumanian headquarters a t Jassy. This is indeed a military novelty, as it enables the attacking Russians to largely make good their wastage of meif while pursuing their qffensive. To the Central Powers it is a double loss, for every Czech and Roumane Taken is a soldier lost and an enemy added to those with whom they are contending. Wetf may the Germans shake with fear for the safety of the growing Roumanian wheat, and we can better understand why this fear should be so intense and widespread. It also helps us to understand that Russia. Is fighting against many thousands who are not by blood her enemies; men who lived in territory when it was annexed by Austn\, and who have no love for the new nationality thrust upon them. It is seen that these men are not only willing prisoners, but !

they are eager to turn their rifles on to those with whom they have been compelled to fight. Moreover, the information regarding the strength and disposition of the Austro-German forces be simply invaluable to Russia. But even all this good fortune does not account for the marvellous success of Russian arms in Galicia. It is almost inconceivable that Russia, in only £ few weeks, is again at the entrance of the Carpathian passes, west of Stanislau, near the Dolina, and that Lemberg, the capital of Galica, the arsenal and food centre of the whole southern front, is being approached from three directions and nothing short of a miracle can prevent it for the last time falling into Russian hands. That part that Russia had agreed to play in the great coordinated thrust that /failed and left the Allied army stranded at Salonika, helpless and in danger, is now being enacted, and events are moving so rapidly as to cause unrest and disorganisation in Berlin. The Junkers of Germany have visions of Russians swarming over Hungarian plains, of a free and successful Roumania, of being driven out of Serbia, of Hungarian and perhaps .Austrian resolve to no longer remain the marTbnette of the Hohenzollerns, and they realise that if this Russian offensive reaches what it now has every appearance of being capable of, Germany will be without a friend in the whole world. Germany braggadocio about world domination has already disappeared and that contemptible importunity of tHe cur and beaten bully is fast reaching the limit of self-degradation, and is becoming an instance of the extreme in human degeneracy. In his innermost soul the Kaiser is perturbed; he dismisses generals and members of his Cabinet because they fail in the inhuman tdsks he imposes on them, and now he truly shakes for the safety of his own person. There is a huge majority in his Parliament that are distinctly opposed to him and his Prussian Junkers, and he quakes for what the future may bring forth. Berlin is alarmed; the military caste of Germany is alarmed at the trend war is taking. On the other hand the world wonders in silence, acclaiming little or nothing, but there is a hugely preponderating psychic obsession that the end is drawing very near.