"NEVER HAS RUSSIA SEEN SUCH A REVIVAL"

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

"NEVER HAS RUSSIA SEEN SUCH A REVIVAL"

The testimony is widespread that the _ only effect of the German occupation of i Warsaw is to weld the. Russian people -* into one family dominated by the resolve to have no peace without victory. g THE RUSSIAN TROOPS. ''The Russians are still able at various p points to turn and inflict serious losses on the foe, and the cost of the Austro- ( German advance remains as heavy as ever," says the Times in a leading article, "No one can read Mr. Washburn's spirited description of the Russian withdrawal through Ualieia," adds the Times, "without feeling that there are son% misfortunes which are more glorious than 1 victories. The valiant self-sacrifice of i the Russian troops during the whole of the recent Galician campaign has never . been excelled in all the annals of war. 1 The Russian Armies are to-day maintaining their resistance with unflincli- % ing ardour, and their heroism compels * even Germany to pause and reflect. " ] A THREE MONTHS' RETREAT. "When the full story of the last three . months' campaign in the Eastern theatre j can be told without reserve, there will { shifle from every page the reflection of ► the calm and patient confidence of the Russian rank and file. 1 "Mr. Washburn dwells in his Galician narrative, for the hundredth time, upon the stoicism of the Russian private sol- ( dier. The people of Russia, he tells us, ■ are behind this war, and they have 'not ] the vaguest idea of a peace without a decision.' Germany has won back Gal-i'-ia for the Austrians, and she has aeiz- . td Warsaw, but 'she has not discouraged the troops.' "The retreat from Mons will remain an ■

imperishable page in British history, and | it lasted twelve days. The Russian equivalent to the retreat from Mons has lasted three months, and is not yet over. Its scale has been infinitely vast- ' cr, its trials far more intense, and the Russians have had to face again and ■ again a concentrated fury of big gun fire such as even now the Western front has hardly known. That after such a prolonged ordeal the spirit of the Russian Armies is loftier and more resolute than over is the best proof that Germany ; is confronted in the East with a foe power can never be broken. THE OTJASD KKE. "The figure which stands forth In all these d.sperate cuii'licis Uie spirit of Sussia incarnate U I,.at nl the Grand Duke Nicholas. Ill:: skill and deliberation with which he is extricating his armies from their peril, while exacting the highest possible price from the enemy, have Housed the utmost admiration. The . Russian nation stands in no need of an I eyemp.'ar, for it is already determined to fight this, war to a finuh; but if it required further it would find it in the unyielding resohition of the Russian Commander-in-Chief. The Grand Duke's invincible tenacity, which is proof against every blow of fate, has been happily reflected in the stern and uncompromising manner in which the Imperial Duma ha; confronted the new Bitnation. "The energy with which the task of increasing the supply of munitions Ims been beg>m in Russia gives promise to the dp/ v/heu 'le invad.'T will in turn be compelled tc retreat," concludes the Times, THE SPIRIT IS HEARTENING. Dr. 1.. J. Dillon, the Daily Telegraph correspondent, says: "I have received private communications, written by prominent Russians as soon us the abandonment of the Polish capital Iviiiinf inevitable, and the spirit which they all breathe is heartening. "This serious check sustained by the Slav Empire is transformed into a stimulant to more strenuous efforts. 'This imminent reverse,' one statesman writes, 'is not without its compensation. It has raised the whole political temperature by many degrees, and will do more than piles of orange books and official appeals to bring the Duma and the Government into line, and fuse all layers of the Russian population into one compact patriotic nation. Already the mere anticipation c.f what is coming has roused the most ten phi elements of the empire, awakening them to n stimulating sense of our U':lji:iuicie-:, and to a firm resolve to remedy then.. Never since the Napoleonic invasion ot Russia has any such revival been vitnessid. " 'The various tendencies of our 180 million people, generally incoherent, and oftentimes conflicting, have been pressed by the weight of these sinister events into (mo set purpose, the utter defeat of tin enemy of the human race, and in view of this unanimity nnd resolve cur confidence in ultimate victory is no longer a mere frame of mind, but is become a potent moral force, which will \?ork out its own fulfilment. We shall recoil from no sacrifice, because the most costly sacrifice is slight when set against the calamitous alternative.'" UNION OF PEOPLE AND RULERS. "This fruitful union of people and rulers to which my col respondent alludes is, I am convinced, destined to endure," adds Dr. Dillon. "This solidarity of all will open a i'resh chapter of Russia's history, because it connotes the continuous active interest and participation of the nation's representatives in the transaction of public affairs, mid the formal recognition by the Government that its future policy can never dispense with this collaboration and sanction. "Russia, therefore, is hence-forward , one, and may be trusted implicitly to translate her words into deeds. Among i these words is the promise not to lay down arms until the enemy of popular liberties is crushed. This magnitfieent achievements has been greatly accelerated by'"military reverses." WIIEN SHE CAN DO IT NO MORE. 1 :■ "At the moment of writing Germany • faces the identical problem that she did : two months ago, excepting that she now ? occupies extra territory, for the most - part in ruins," writes Mr. Washburn in - the Times in his account of Galieia. "The - task before her is to repeat the Galician s enterprise against an army infinitely s better than the one she broke in May. 1 If she can do this she will have the > same problem to meet on some other line ) in another two months, and after that ? another and another. It is simply a , question of how much in time, men, and ? resources Germany has to spend on these . costly victories. She may do it once, she t may do it twice, but there will come i a time when she can do it no more, and l when that time comes Russia will slowly, - surely, inexorably, come back step by : step until she regains her own, her early - conquests, and has Germany on her knees ia the East,"