FALL OF WARSAW.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 September 1915, Page 4

FALL OF WARSAW.

HAVE THE GEEMAJf-PLANS FAILED? London, Auguit 13. What every intelligent stutyutt of th» war has been anxiously watching for many d*ya is the German endrolhig movement in the East. Even the man in fhe streets understands that the fall of Warsaw is of small Importance com* pared with the annihilation of the Ens* atn amies. That out to accomplish' this, if they p«»sibly could, is quite evident, lie (colossal movement that swept round Poland from north to south is the stroke of military strategy ever attempted. The German plan was to drive a and south, which would cut off tht : retreat of the Russian armlet defending Warsaw. It is perhaps a little early ; for the cautious military critic to dogmatise on this subject, but at present it is tolerably certain that the Gerinan plan has failed. The enemy hold Warsaw right enough, and no doubt the Polish capital will witness the triumphant entryof the Kaiser Wilhelm at the head of his'chosen legions, and much pomp and circumstance of vletory in Sigißtnund square. Already the new Teuton liberators of ancient Poland are inaugurating the new freedom by setting up precisely the same regime that obtains in Belgium. The Poles have been mendaciously assured that the Germans do not make war on a civilian population. This announcement appeared on the morning of the day that saw another Zeppelin raid on the English coast and about twenty women and children blown to bits. ITie Poles must have had their <?wn doubt* on the subject. Because for days before the city was evacuated. by. the Russians, death was rained upon it by Gennan aviators, The new Military Govornor of Poland promises to be beneficent. But meanwhile he holds a number of the leading Poles found in Warsaw as hostages of war. They are to be 'shot in platoons unless the city is absolutely submissive, or if the Russians, happen, to reappear on the scene. The, last thing the Russians did in Warsaw was to execute summary justice on some ProGerman Poles -who were jeering outside the houses, of their pro-Russian compatriots and _«iniaterly dangling of rope before their eyes." The Russians shot some of these dogs, and tiieir souls must have gone straight to the nether regions. A BARREN VICTORY. So far as Warsaw is i!i ■ Germans found, when their cavalry pushed cautiously into its suburbs after swimming their horses across the river that the place had been absolutely gleaned out. There was not an ounce of ; metal left in the city. Even the" telegraph wires were carried off. If the same is true of the neighbouring fortresses now or shortly to be in the hand* 6f the Germans, it is an amazing and shows that the Russian .retreat have been long foreseen and carefully prepared. But it is difficult to believe lhat the Russians can really have sat away "with all .their big fortress inns. The it is good reason to helievo tlut severn i batteries of formidable Japanese manned by Japanese gunners, were on this front. What has hapnened to them? But the German official reports claim as yet no big captures. The losses tlie enemy sustained ;ti capturing War-" saw, and dislodging the .Russian* from the , Vistula, the San and the JNarew,' must have been enormous. Tn two months the Germans alone ,<ire be to lmvtt nearly four hundred thousand men.

If this sacrifice proves to havtf been made to obtain no more than tli" \"nlser's state entry into Warsaw, ntitl the , .Russian iirinics are. i-till intact and effective on their new linos, it really amount* to a disaster /for the enemy. And it in a vi rv significant fact tliat the German* should have made peace overtures to Russia in the hour of what seemed td be their triumph in the East. How far the enemy will attempt to press 6n after the retreating Russians is atill a wetter of conjecture. But the more carefully the situation i> oonsidi red the loss likely it seems that the German General Staff will embark at this Beason of the year on any rash adventure ;nto the inhospitable heart of Russia. The- only advantage the enemy eould gain by the tromendou* sacrifices made in men, munitions, and energy is to destroy the Russian forces, or so to weaken and contain them that they might safely proceed to concentrate great masse* of troops elsewhere by transferring them frtm the East to other theatres of the war, There Is no information at present available which suggests that they have any prospect of succeeding in either of the*# tflgfe,