RUSSIA'S TASK.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1916, Page 5

RUSSIA'S TASK.

THE GALICIAN CAMPAIGN. ACR.OSS THE DNIESTER. AUSTRIANS IN RETREAT. '; Rome, March 22. A wireless message stiites that the Austrians have abandoned Czernowitz. The Russians have crossed the Dniester, completely overwhelming the Austrian defensive positions. ON THE EASTERN FRONTS. HEAVY FIGHTING. THE USE OP GAS. ■«■ Received March 23, 8.15 p.m. Petrograd, March 23. A communique states:—There were lively infantry actions along the whole front. The Russians captured a couple of villages and some woods in the Jacobstadt sector, and a line of enemy trenches in the Mikzinny-Lakc Sekly sector. There is desperate infantry fighting north of the village of Postava, in the Vileita-Mojeika region, where the enemy is directing violent counter-attacks, owing to our troops capturing the trenches. The machine-gun fighting on the southwestern shore of Lake Narocz is developing in our favor. Despite asphyxiating gases and the enemy's murderous fire we forced three linos of the enemy's trenches and stopped a counter-attack by using projectiles with asphyxiating poisonous gases.

THE OFFENSIVE IN THE EAST. GERMANS ADMIT IT IS INCREASING. Received March 23, 8.15 p.m. Amsterdam, March 23. Gorman newspapers admit that the Russian attacks are becoming heavier. Fresh forces are being brought in, and even a stronger offensive is expected, with the double purpose of relieving the pressure at Verdun and locally improving the Russian positions, which are lower than those of the Austro-Germans.