WARSAW'S FATE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8206, 2 August 1915, Page 5

WARSAW'S FATE.

There is no definite hews of the evacuation of Warsaw. The successes of the .Russians in the past few. days on the Xaiow and between tho Vioprz and the Bug are icgaided as a guarantee that withdrawal is being conducted with deliberation throughout^ strictly •""to* * ""^ffiSm, m, a,." - The lfl>a.l> T0I0& aphV,' ,Petrograd con espo/uloiit > states that the recent Austio-Geinian onsiaii^hth have domon*si rated the iact thfb the ,Jlussian sfiatrniAts take the broadest possible view of the war, and are actuated by the single purpose of obtaining a complete and crushing victory. They are prepared, theiefore, to make all the necessary temporary sacrifices.

The Grand Duke Nicholas, earlier in the campaign, intimated that "ho would not allow himself to bo hamps;rod by a Sentimental desire to hold a particular town or district with tbe Imperial armies, and for that reason everybody was prepared for the evacuation of Warsaw. If that does take place the Germans will only get the city, inhabited by gioybeards, women, and ehildion, 'as destruction and removal h'lvo robbed the Geimans ok ovoi y thing likely to be serviceable. The correspondent states tfiat the Germans will have to ihank their industry, and not their military science or" valour, lor this success. Niere

never was a war in which man power, which is Russia's strongest factor, could do so little.

[ Colonel Shumsky, a well-known critic, says that when the Germans constructed three lines of fortifications on the Western front they guaranteed themselves against a general AngloFrench advance, while carrying out their grandiose operations on the Eastern front. The position will dow be reversed, Austro-Germans guarding the Vistula, the Niemen, and the Bug, while a special effort is made on the Western front, but ah essential difference is. that while the Russians tranr quilly chack the pressure and fall back as far as they like, the Anglo-French retreat has limit. Therefore the critical juncture is arriving for the AngloFrench forces, because the Germans will hurl themselves with freshly assembled masses towards France, forcing a decisive battle which will settle the issue on the rest of the front and simultaneously conclude the war.

Other experts declare that Russia would be imperilling her final success if she accepted a fight to a finish under her present conditions. She will much abbreviate her front, rendering it easier to withstand the German assault till she herself is ready to assume the offensive. The local superiority of numbers due to the network of railways has not been the principal advantage of the Germans, but the enormous .preponclerance of gunpowder. Russia indxistrially is the least developed of the Allies, and yma.ll wonder is it that she m unable to keep pace'with the fearful wastage of weapons. The necessary steps- are now being taken to organise and supplement, the output.