The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1915. FALL OF PRZEMYSL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 244, 24 March 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1915. FALL OF PRZEMYSL.

Tho surrender of Przemysl to the investing Russians removed ore of the greatest obstacles to the progress of Russia's invasion of Austria, and eventually Germany. Next to Cracow, still in the hands of the Austrians, it was the strongest fortress in Galicia. F.ir months the Russians have been besieging the position, with the exception of a brief period when they were pushed back by the strong pressure exerted by the enemy at other, and weaker points of their line. The Austrian garrison fought bravely, as is strikingly shown by the fact that out of an originil strength of SO,OOO remained but 25,000 to surrender their arms. And then only because they were practically starving. The loss of 155,000 men in this one affair gives an idea of the »c*la of the casualties experienced on this fro»t. They must have been colossal. In one short campaign in East Prussia Von Hindenberg is credited —or debited with the loss of nearly 200,000. The total losses of the combatants must be simply staggering. As the Russian line is tightened and a forward movement is made from the North Sea on the one side to Bukovina in the south, the fighting will be fiercer still, and more sanguinary. There are indications that this forward movement has already started. Progress is not rapid, but evidently it is sure, enabling the Russians to consolidate their positions. It is a tremendous proposition, but one which Russia, with her large armies, well led and well fed, is capable of carrying through successfully. It is to be noted that the Allies, after a period of comparative quiescence, are taking the offensive everywhere. In Belgium, Northern France, and Alsace, their armies are pressing hard, whilst in the Dardanelles the naval and military forces are very active and hope to capture Constantinople before long. It is also significant that Italy should be girding her loins preparatory to stepping into the arena, and that Roumania and Greece are busily preparing. It looks as if the Allies and their friends, soon to be transformed into active supporters, are going to make a big attempt to crush the enemy this spring and bring the war to an early conclusion. But Germany still possesses mighty armies and wonderful engines of destruction, and it will only be by herculean efforts that she will be subdued. Neither is Austria a negligible quantity, as she has shown by her resolute fighting in the Carpathians and at Przemysl. The Allies' doings during the next few weeks will bo fraught with great importance, and it is safe to say history will be made very rapidly indeed.

THE BOND OF'EMPIRE.. Olio .of .the most, pressing, questions, mis. Ed for the people of the British Empire by the war. in which we are now involved is whether we have a genuine part to play in the world history of the future. The. subject is one that has been exceptionally well handled by the Rev. Richard Roberts in the bracing little book entitled, "Personality and Nationality." Bishop Gore recently lamented the downfall of hopes for civilisation :>asod on the modern liberal and industrial movement—on the ideals of peace and prosperity. It is only "a new spirit in the nations" which can save civilisation, anil it is this new spirit that Mr Roberts recognises as the only enduring cement for the rebuilding and construction work which must follow the end of the war—if it is to be worta while. Though a, kind of exalted optimism which this time of strain produces as a natural reaction, there- is hardly any evil wlli'aft it does not assume will vanish from the path of human or national progress in the good time coming. This'thrill of hope in darkness is like the freshening wind that blows round the world Before the dawn, but human affairs are not controlled by spontaneous natural forces, and there will be no sunrise, or at least » glowing and menacing one unless we will it by our conscious action. It is, therefore, not likely that a long reign of peaco will follow in which human relations can make some permanent advance, unless there is a definite ; constructive effort to secure- it. At the root of the matter is to be found the incontrovertible fact that only a democratic form of Government csn give personality its native rights. We, in New Zealand; hare taken this maxim to heart, but only jn part, for the world has not yet seen a democracy in being in which the requisite conditions of full personal self-development have been wholly achieved, and we are still a long way off that plane of moral elevation on- whieh perfect democracy is possible. Just as the democracy can only be sustained on a hasis of the mutual trust of its members, so a free Empire must rest upon the same moral foundation. The boad! of Empire in Greater Britain is a bond of moral sentiment, and that is a bond which the force of arms is power-, less to break. Without trustworthiness and trustfulness no community can hang together. What is required is a far more generous conception of the rights of the other man. It is significant that the laboring classes of Britain are awakening to"a far more vivid conception of their natural rights. Labor unrest is fundamentally the expression of the awakened native craving for a more upacious life. It is one of the hopes of the present situation that our new-found unity may create a far more fruitful fellowship of persons, classes and parties in the future than has hitherto been known. We may, says Mr Roberts, cherish the confidence that the immediate result of the war may be k mighty recoil from militarism, and that it will reinforce the plea of those who believe that the true greatness and destiny of Great Britain lies along those lines of moral idealism which have achieved her most splendid historical triumphs. There is, he says, a Britain in the hearts of us all, a Britain yet to be, free, sober, clean, happy, a land of merry, healthy children, of sweet and noble women, of strong and pure men; a Britain in which grey heads do not go down in poverty to the grave, neither is any man or woman exploited for the profit or prostituted for the pleasure of another; a Britain cleansed from the dehumanising lust of power and wealth; a Britain which is a true, deep, unassailable brotherhood, a commonwealth of peace and goodwill; in whose streets there shall be none begging fro bread, in whoso cottages there shall be joy and tranquillity and plenty, in whose palace there shall be lowliness and simplicity and gentleness; in- whose courts there shall be immediate and equal justice, in whose politics there shall lie no rancour or selfish in wdiose industry and commerce there shall be neither greed nor untruth—a redeeming Motherland, animated, by the sublime task of reconciliation, to win all the peoples into a world commonwealth of goodwill, freedom and peace.