CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 212, 15 February 1915, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS.

s THE STRUGGLE FOR WARSAW. i Tiie tremendous sacrifices of life being ■' made by the Germans in their ell'ort to ■ | reach Warsaw recall the persistent at- ; j tacks made in close formation in various I parts of the western theatre, most re- ; cently in Flanders. The fierce struggle : for Warsaw shows the value set upon its possession by both Germans and Russians. On this subject Mr. 11. Belloc had something to say in a lecture recently delivered in. London. There were in the East three theatres ot war, he i said. Two—the East Prussian boun- ; dary and Serbia—were subsidiary. The - primary field was the ancient kingdom ; of Poland. Two things were essential i to either combatant, and both were II Polish towns—Cracow, the ancient and ; sacred capital of tbe Poles, and Warsaw, their wealthy and modern capital. The fortress of Cracow in the south blocked the way to Silesia. The depot of War- | saw, flanked by ifs two fortresses of , Ivangorod and Novo Georgievsk, eontrolled the railway communications of the Russians. Let the Russians invest and pass Cracow, and they would sweep at once into Silesia, Let the Germans i possess Warsaw, anil they would at : once make any prolonged and successful | campaign of the Russians against Ger- I many, if not against Austria, impossible until Warsaw was recovered. Cracow, being the door to Silesia, was essential to Germany and Austria at this moment. Just beyond Cracow there lay through old Silesia t 0 the left the great highway to Vienna, the Moravian gap between the Carpathian and the Bohe-i mian hills, while to the left lay the high road to Berlin behind the Oder and | tho frontier fortifications. More tlian i that, Silesia was th 0 South Lancashire of Prussia. Let a Russian army corps occupy Silesia, and all mercantile Germany would be struck at the heart.' Again, on a smaller but very intense scalo Silesia represented the great j landed aristocracy, Use sccondr material | wing of th u modern German Empire. The estates of Pless, Lichnowsky, and j many other? ~?ould be found within a cavalry ride of tho frontier, "and if an enemy's cavalry ride over your land, it is not only a ride." Warsaw was essential because there converged the railway communications upon which any Polish campaign depended. To understand what \\ arsaxv meant, one must see the Vistula—a stream not only broad, but deep, across which bridges were ex. ■ tremely rare. It carried all the merchan- ' disc and life of its valley. Hold Warsaw, and 110 one could hold the line of the A istula against you. Germany had made her great bid for Warsaw, and had hitherto failed. Russia had had Cracow within week of her grasp, and once, it seemed, wilhin a day or'two ■ and had twice been foiled. This, double failure on both sides was responsible for the indeterminate character of the Eastern campaign.

ANGLO-RUSSIAN TRADE.

i j All influential eommitten is. in course r of formation in Great Britain for the I development of Anglo-Russian trade th e . j intention boinir to foster the-inter- ; change between the two nations of those | Roods which have hitherto been either ; despatched to Germany or obtained from there. Nothing is likely to he done imj til the sprinpr, when Russian ports should he freely available to commerce, notwithstanding the war. while bv that time it is probable that the exchange L.etor. which is so important an element in buhiuess relations between Great Britain and th ( . Czar's dominions, will have moved in favor of a higher level of trading. Hiere has been an enormous conglomeration of all sorts of goods from England and.elsewhere at Avchaiwl including olW.rnO tons of coal, thousands <>! tens of ;--'coltish herrings, and also machinery, cotton, and chemicals. This is an. exceptionally mild winter, and as the ice-breaker .Canada is in readiness ' and will shortly be joined bv two'' others, it is expected that navigation to . Archangel will b 0 open very early in/