BERLIN IN DOUBT.
FIKST NEWS OF DEFEAT. Letters received in C'opcnnagen state that Berlin has undergone a startling clianiri in the past few weeks. The sin;;in". ' shouting, enthusiastic mob tb-ii IhroliL'ed the streets a for,ui:;lit pvt-Vioil-dv lias divided into haii-ircls o! little "roups, that stand about d';*.T.< sine: ti.e news of the day in low. coi: ccrncd voices. The stream of hunn'.iiitv that nightly coursed up ami down Inter den Linden lute thinned. It has completely lost its uoistei'ousness. The LandsUimv. tall to the colors was heavily drawn on the male, population that still remain in Berlin. Women fill the beer gardens now, with a sprinkling of older men, anil here and there a soldier in grey carrying liis arm in a sling. Confidence' was the spirit of all two •weeks ago, to-day it is doubt. The change lias come about gradually. It ■began with the news of the battle oi Lembcrg. Of course, only the Austrian bulletins were received here, and tliey claimed a brilliant success for the army of Franz Josef. Hut a* the Bulletin stated that "for strategic and humane, reasons'' the Austrian army tail been I withdrawn to n stronger position in ', the. rear, nobody really doubted wh.u !>ad happened. 1 Shortly after the battle of Lembergthe Austrian cavalry-Gen'oral Uexhcl and General l'aar, aide-de-camp to Emperor Franz Josef passed through Berlin on their way to t'lv German Genetd! Staff. Immediately there followed a change in the dispositions of the German armies of the north. General von Bnlow and two corps entrained, and were hurried across the Empire. Every j other railroad train in Germany stood still while this movement was carried I out. These troops were sent to stiffej the wavering line of the Austrian defence. Fed on reports of victories against the. Russians in East Prussia, with details of from 30,(100 to 90,001 prisoners of war taken in each fight, the people, of Berlin recovered a bit oi their verve. But when the great General Stall issued the bulletin, which acknowledged that General Kluek's win.; I had been turned, the barometer of their j spirits took another drop. At the time of Kluek's reverse, tin j Berlin papers did their best to discount j it by running long stories of the enor- ! mou's total of prisoners of war in Gerj man hands; '220,000 was the number claimed.
But this brought no cheers from the crowd outside the newspaper offices. They had been treated to the news that Kluck's cavalry patrols were under the walls of Paris. Why. then, did it not fall? Accustomed as the people were to I the account of success following success, the news of a check was doubly disquieting- -. .
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 136, 2 November 1914, Page 7
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448BERLIN IN DOUBT. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 136, 2 November 1914, Page 7
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