RUSSIA'S TASK.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1915, Page 5

RUSSIA'S TASK.

THE NORTHERN PROVINCES. RIGA SITUATION NOT ALARMBH}. '.(■ Times and Sydney Sun Services.) London, Sept. 15. Mr. Stanley Washburn, who has Ibiecn visiting Riga and Mitau, thinks that Riga is in no immediate danger locally, and it is improbable that it can be taken t rontally. If it is abandoned eventually it will be the result of manoeuvres elsewtare. like Warsaw, the town showß no tendency to panic, but is complacently awaiting developments-. More than half the population departed some time ago. t Discussing the military situation, Mr, Washburn says that in the immediate front it does not seem alarming. The first lino is twenty miles from the town, and there are several lines of defence intervening, also thle river. It will cost the Germans dear to reach the river, which will still leave them outside the town. The weather during the past week has been a terrible handicap to the enemy. A three days' downpour flooded every small stream, making the fields seas of mud and limiting the niobility of the guns and transport to the main roads, of which there are very few. There is infinitely less panic in Riga than in Fetrograd. BIG WORK IN CALICIA. ENEMY UP AGAINST IT. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) London, Sept. 15. Berlin correspondents in the Bast give most interesting accounts of the fighting on the Sereth in Galicia. The east ■bank of the river has been converted into a veritable fortress, which, combined with the natural conditions of the soil, has made the river enormously strong. On the western outskirts of Tarnopol, at the bridge-head, bomb-proof shelters and trenches have been constructed. By concentrated attacks from the bridge-heads the Russians exerted great pressure upon General von Botharmy. After a stubborn battle in the steppo, which is utterly devoid of trees and. full of swamps and I marshes, Bothmer's troops, which included the Prussian Guard, were repulsed. On the heights on the least bank of the Strypa the Austrians are meeting with enormous difficulties. A portion of their army has been forced to remain inactive amidst a region full of stagnant water, 'and continuous rains have accentuated the dreary landscape.

ON THE BALTIC COAST. (MUNITION MAKING AT LIBAU. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) Reeoived Sept. 16, 6.35 p.m. •London, Sept. 15. A merchant who escaped from Libau states that the Germans have established four shell factories there, and are working continuously, turning out twenty thousand shells- daily. Transports arrive from Dantac daily with munitions, food, and winter clothing. From Mitel the Germans had run a full-gauge single-line railway along the coast to Libau, thus linking tup the Prussian system. RUSSIAN MUNITIONS. SATISFACTORY SUPPLY ASSURED. Received Sept. 16, 6.5 p.m. Paris, Sept. 15. Official: A wireless from Petrograd states that M. Polivanoff is satisfied with the improved supply of munitions; the enormous increase of the past fortnight is fully maintained. A SENSATIONAL STORY. RUSSIAN ARSENAL BLOWN UP. Received Sept. .16, 5.5 p.m. London, Sept. 15. The Evening News gives prominence to the fact that the Russian retreat in the Carpathians was due to the fact that half the smokeless powder and high explosives required fey the army were manufactured at Ochtu, the Russian Woolwich. The story is that German secret service men bribed the workers, who blew up a series of nitrating tanks at Ochta. Petrograd was shaken, and thousands of workmen were killed, nearly all the plant being destroyed. The Russian artillery was thus crippled, and it was impossible, to counter General Maekensen's attack. Britain and France had to. give up the thought of a spring offensive, and eend their reserves of shells and explosives to Russia. RUSSIAN REPORT. STILL FIGHTING DESPERATELY. Received Sept. 16, 11.25 p.m. Petrograd, Sept. 16. A communique say 3: We dislodged the enemy from two villages north-eastward of. Svientziany, and drove hack the enemy at Vilica fords, near the railway. The enemy, after a repulse on the front southward of Pripet, are stubbornly counter-attacking, with great forces. We captured, north-eastward of Dubno, fifty-seven officers and 2503 men. Later, the enemy counter-attacked and threw back our troops. There is desperate fighting ut Strypa, westward of Trombovla, where we took fifteen hundred prisoners.