HOW LEMBERG FELL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 133, 29 October 1914, Page 2

HOW LEMBERG FELL.

NARRATIVE OP AN ENGLISHMAN. Petrograd, September 10. A graphic li'l.ory of Uiu lail of Lenibci'if mil! -been given to me by an Englishman who ha* ju»t arrived here, lie says:— "I am an engineer, and with a frien I had a business in Eemberg. About a wei_k before the arrival of ; ; : he Russians we wcr,. suddenly sent, lor by the Aiw trian poliio and conveyed' to prison. All our money was coiilkcalod. We were kept for five days without food. 'Only water was supplied to us. We were released, in an exhausted staile, during the panic which broke out on the approach of the Russian army. "No defence of the town was attempted. The Russians gave the demoralised Austrian military authorities three days in which to evacuate the pliicj in order that the inhabitants might, be spared the horrors of ;

Iwrdment. Tlio Russians made some show of opening a ■bomiliantanuif;. I should say it was only a feint; no shells ,-eemi d to fall into the town. The noise terrified the citizens. :i.).Uifl> of whom bolted helter-skelter. The. Jewish community were particularly alarmed, owing to tlio lying stories concerning the Russians in the Austrian piipi-r.s. Bankers escaped with money !l>e!ongmg to other people, and savings hank boxes o( poor people were broken open. Nobody wa g allowed to leave by train for Yienna unless he or she could deposit ait the railway station £2OO 'to he returned on '•parting the capital.' Passengers for Budapest held to deposit £4O. "There were pitiful sights in tlio s'reet*. Wounded Austrian soldiers, disabled in the arms or p-gs. shoeless and almost 'li rags,, besged for bread. The utter disorganisation of the Austrian military administration and the stale of chno» in'o which the Austrian war eomrr.i'sariat dcjeneralcd are beneath all criticism. The Austrian Army proved to be a disunited and unwilling mass of men, of whom large numbers were only too delighted to throw down (heir arms an 1 surrender to !he Russia M.

"The Russian Artnv entered T.emher" in splendid condition. Tf was ."Hmded lit «n enormous provision train, wil'i ptoi'v requisite in ahtindanee. The inhshilanln. .".p.-eiallv Hi" RuHienian Slavs, met. the T«ir'< soldiers with demon*! rations of del'ght. showering flowers 0" Ihr-m. and kissing Hie hands of the officer'..' - —Central News.