FIGHTING EAST PRUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 157, 9 December 1914, Page 7

FIGHTING EAST PRUSSIA.

SCENES OF HAVOC. The town of Suvalki at present can be reached only by horses or motorcars, as tho railway was destroyed by the and is now in process of restoration. Trains from Grodno run only as far as Augustoif, as just beyond the latter town the bridge over one of the lakes was bloH'n up. The day after the Germans were expelled from Suvalki the Russian engineers began to build a temporary bridge, which by now is probably completed.

The line which crosses the Niemen at Olita has also been destroyed, and trains run no further than Shestakoff, beyond Simno. From here to Suvalki all the rails have been torn up, and hydrants and points blown to pieces. F01 1 dozens of miles bptli sleepers and rails, have been taken away bodily to Prussia, and no traces of the line remain. If it were not for embankments and telegraphic posts with their broken wires 110 one would guess that a railway had ever passed through the district. Beyond Sehcstakoff, two sixty-foot bridges have been blown up, but here two Russian engineer and railway battalions are hard at work. From here to Suvalki the country is covered with signs of a sanguinary conflict. , Fields are seared with trenchcß. On both sides of the road are stakes wound round with barbed wire. At several places the road had been undermined by deep pits, the bottoms of which bristled with steel spearheads. On the fields one sees the ravages of artillery projectiles—deep, conical holes five or six feet in diameter. Here, too, one finds shrapnel cases, splinters of shells, skeletons of horses, fragments of blood-stained clothing, cartridge pouches, blue-grey coats of German soldiers, empty schnapps and beer bottles.' In one 'trench there was a particularly large number of empty bottles. It is evident that- the German soldiers invig orate themselves with alcohol before battle. Near one of these batteries of bottles was a soldier's common grave. Along the road are many burnt houses and plundered farms. , Of entire villages, in some eases only blackened ruins remain. Inside the houses that have not suffered in this way, nothing remains whole. Pillows and quilts have been ripped open and the down scattered about. Samovers dented by heels of heavy boots, are lying about on the floor. Cupboards and drawers have been rumaged with bayonets. ,What the Prussians could not carry away they have spoilt. Whole forests have been hewed down or burnt. Wide areas have been cleared for fields of fire. Peasants' gardens have been strip ped of their produce, Potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables have been dug up wholesale and carried off. Local inhabitants,, mostly Lithuanians and White Russians, have been so ; terrified by the Germans that they hardly realise .what has happened to them. It is not surprising that they have welcomed the Russian soldiers with delight. In 'Suvalki itself the streets are empty and silent. All the windows are closely shuttered. Signs of life are visible only in the central area, where a few shops have opened and lights are occasionally seen* at night.—(Daily Telegraph.)

WHERE GERMANY HAS FAILED. (By W. H. Fitehett). _ By arrangement with the publisher of Dr. Fitehett's new shilling book, "The First three months of the War," we publish this article by Dr. Fitehett on Germany's failure: — Germany is, by the agreed judgment of the civilised world, responsible for the war. It could have been arrested at its birth with a word, and it could stop it now almost with a gesture. Austria, though it began the struggle, and in mere numbers is the greater of the two Powers against whom the rest of the world is fighting, is hardly remembered. The whole issue of the war is bound up in the issues of Germany; and the logic of events shows tluit Germany is suffering defeat. In mere slaughter it has suffered greater loss, many times over, than any other of the Powers. Many things make this certain. The fact that it is fighting on two fronts, its method of attacking in close and solid masses, and the indifference of its leaders to the loss of life in rank and file—all help to make this certain. Mr Hilaire Belloc estimates that the German armies alone have lost 1,750,000 men in killed, wounded and missing—a rate of loss exceeding 100,000—a whole army, that is—for •every week of the war. How can a Power maintain the struggle when its very blood is being drained away in such a volume?

WHERE GERMANY HAS BROKEN DOWN. It is possible to condense into half a dozen sentences the things in which Germany has visibly failed,: (1) She chose the pretext, and the moment for the war with such judgment that it failed to bring in Italy, and so split the Triple Alliance. Germany was ithus left with Austria alone —described by popular judgment in Germany itself as "a corpse on. Germany's back"— to contend with Great Britain, Franco, Russia, Belgium, Servia, Japan—to say nothing of Montenegro and Portugal. (2) For the sake of gaining a few days in tiine by marching her troops across Belgium, Germany paid the terrific price of war with England on land and sea. Then she threw away the time she had gained at this cost by the blunder of her method in attacking Liege. ' . ' (3) She failed in her stroke at Paris, the point to which her whole army strategy was directed. As a result, she had to retreat, is now fighting on two fronts at once, has lost the initiative Of both,i and is threatened with invasion on both. This is all she has' achieved at a cost in killed and wounded estimated at 1,750,000; or nearly ten times the whole cost of the war of 1870.

(4) Germany called out its last line—the Landsturm —in the first week of the war. It lias already, tliat is, put every available man in the field. But Kussia and Great Britain have vast resources yet untouched. (5) Germany has put herself in "" with the moral sense of the world by the revelation of the principles on which she acts in public affairs, her contempt for treaties, and the fact that hov own pledge docs not bind her. Her treatment of Belgium Has arrayed the human conscience itself against her. It- is to be noted by experts, almost without exception, regard Germany's defeat as certain. We take some American opinions, as they cannot be suspected of bias: "A Germany," say 3 Mr Frederick Palmer, "which lias got only to Amiens by September I—the day set for the fall of Paris —is a losing Germany; a Ger- J many that by October 1 lias' not taken Paris and demoralised the French Army unless the Austrians defeat the Russians, is a beaten Germany." "Even if the outcome of the battle of the Aisne is as favorable to Germany as it is permitted for moat ardent 6ymp#iugerß to hop§2LgjgeAAihaL

chance _of Germany's winning in the long run. Her one chance was in the '(lushing attack.' There was 110 German writer, military or economic, who before the war saw any 'other hope of German success. A sudden, smashing blow to France was the sine qui non. 'This dashing attack' has not yet come off as planned. . . Both in economies and military arithmetic —the. number of men in the liehl—time is-German's worst enemy; it is Russia's best friend. And I believe the time Germany lias already lost is fatal."

Any reader who wishes to get a cleareyed view of the war cannot do better than secure a copy of Dr. Fitchett's new shilling book, 'T'he First Three Months of the War," from which this article is quoted. Is Id in stumps sent to T. Shaw Fitchett, 370 Swanston street, Melbourne, will bring a copy by return post.