SURRENDERS TO RUSSIA

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1915, Page 5

SURRENDERS TO RUSSIA

AFTER A LENGTHY SIEGE. ITALY PREPARES TO JOIN ALLIES HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING IN FRANCE

After a siege lasting for over six months Przemysl has surrendered to the Russians, who are now in possession of the whole of Eastern Galicia clear to the Carpathians.

In a speech in London the British Foreign Minister (Sir Edward Grey) said the German idea was that the Germans were a superior people, to whom all things were lawful, and to whom all nations must be subservient. Rather than submit to such a state of things, said Sir Edward Grey, he would perish or leave the continent. He said- the European nations must be free to live without the interference of a supreme war lord.

From Italy comes news of incidents which point to the fact that the country is prepared for anything that may happen. Twenty submarines have been added to the navy in six months, and the country now possesses 300 aeroplanes and 20 dirigibles. Perhaps most significant of all is the fact that identification badges, which are usually carried only by men on active service, have been served out.

There has been hand-to-hand fighting near Bagatelle, in France, and the Germans were hurled back after some hot work. The attack was on a front of 250 metres. The French artillery caught the Germans when falling back, and inflicted very heavy losses.

A French retrospect of the war frankly admits the manyerrors made in the early stages of the campaign, giving the Germans the opportunity of inflicting the maximum of damage with the minimum loss to themselves. Then Joffre fixed the final line of retreat, and from the Marne, in September, he issued his historic order for the advance, and for his army to die rather than to give way.