WHAT RUSSIA IS FACING.

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

WHAT RUSSIA IS FACING.

LONDON, July 31v Thr. correspondent of ''The Times" in :Pouo;.;,rud points out that Russian strategy as far back as 1910 decided that on the assumption that the Aus-tro-Germans. would hurl their weight on Warsaw, contemplated the entire abandonment by the advanced theatre. At present further efforts to cling to the Vistula-Narew front would be attended by grave danger. Russia is now coping with almost all the Austrian Army and nearly half the German Army, equipped with such powerful artillery that nothing is able to live in the zone of fire. It is paramount to preserve the army, no .matter at what sacrifice; of territory. PETROGRAD, July 31.

The military critic of the " Ndvoe iVrcmya" points out that not until the appearance of General yon Bulqw's army at the Nienien and the Dwina, and of yon Gallwitz's army at the Niirew, were the enemy's operations on. tho north-west frontier closely linked with the German movements west of the Vistula and between the Vistula and the Bug. The Russian armies,-with their inner position, were enabled to manoeuvre on three fronts —north, south, and; west —but ; this advantage was offset by the restricted area of the Novogeorgievsk - Iyangorod - Grodno-' Brest-Litpvsk quadrilateral. The entire I advanced theatre, including the Vistula and Warsaw, must be regarded as_a region of severe rearguard actions in relation to the principal defensive line' —Brest-Litovsk-Grodno-Kovno~but it is prematureto conclude that Warsaw and the■•■Vistula are irretrievably lost. It is possible that the Germans.will be brought to a standstill on those positions.