RUSSIANS ABATOR RIGA REGION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 211, 4 September 1917, Page 5

RUSSIANS ABATOR RIGA REGION.

COMPELLED TO RETIRE BY THREATENING SITUATION. (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, September 3. A Russian official message says:—The Riga region has been abandoned string to the threatening situation.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) It has been clear for some time that the Russian position at Riga was wecarious, rendered so by wholesale desertions, by lack of munitions, and by She general disorganisation of the Russian forces. The town bas been threatened with capture several times since the war began, but on each xcasion the Russians, realising the importance of this gateway to Petrograd, liave. rallied their forces and driven Hindenburg's line back. They denuded the sector of heavy guns, however, for the attack in the southern sector, and when it was announced that the Germans were massing troops in the Riga sector, Petrograd advices refused to give credence to the report, declaring that the enemy's heavy artillery and reserve troops were concentrated further to the south and could not be spared for a northern offensive. They know now, apparently, that that belief was ill-founded.

Riga is the capital of the Government of Livonia, and was founded in IISS by some German merchants as a storehouse. There was a very large German population before the war. the Germans —with the Letts and Esthonians—forming two-thirds of a total uf about 530,000 persons. Germans iormed 47 per cent of the population. About three decades after its foundation Meinhard, an Augustinian monk, erected a monastery, and at the close of the twelfth century Bishop Albert 1. of Livonia chose it for his seat, and obtained permission of Pope Innocent 111. for German merchants to land at the new settlement. Bishop Albert dominated the district in connection with the Teutonic knight=. He built the town at the opening year of the thirteenth century, on the Rege, an affluent of the Dvina. and colonised it with German settler?, founding tbe Order of tbe Brethren of the Sword, which later united with the Teutonic Order of Prussia. Great privileges and possessions were acquired for Riga, which adopted the Hamburg code and joined the Hanseatic League. Before the first half of the thirteenth century bad passed the walls had to be enlarged. In 1541 Riga joined the League of Schmalkaden. Twentyyears after it became a Polish possession, and the King of Poland eventually .recognised the religious freedom of the Protestant population. Having remained under Polish rule up to the outbreak of war between Roland and Sweden, it was captured by tbe King of Sweden—Gustavus Adolphus—on September 15, 1021. after a protracted siege. Then came the wars between Sweden and Russia, and Czar Alexis Mikhailovitch besieged it in 1050, but the Swedes held it successfully. In the Northern War it resisted the Russians for eight months, but after the battle of Poltava the Russians triumphantly entered the gates on July 4, 1710. Vnder the Peace of Nystad Riga was incorporated with the Russian Empire in 1721. and in 17S1 it was made the capital of the Riga vice-royalty, fifteen rears later the vice-rovaltv was determined, and Riga became the capital ot Livonia. The next experience of war was the bombardment by the 1-rencl. in ISI2, when the suburbs were burned.

Then came the blockade by the English, under Admiral Sir Charles Napier, in 1854. In 1557 the fortifications were demolished, in 1577 the old Constitu-tion-Was abrogated, and in 1889 it was organised on the model of Russian towns.

So Riga grew from the mishap of German merchants, who were wrecked on the Livonian coast, set up a storehouse, and traded with the inhabitants. Ihe storehouse was the tirst building in what was to become, after Petrograd and Odessa, the third seaport of Russia. It passed through many vic.ss.tudes in the nature of internal dissensions and military attacks, but retained and improved its commercial importance. After Petrograd it is the most important commercial and industrial town on the Baltic. Little remains of the mediaeval town, so much has been given HP to the spirit of commerce. The old town certainly preserves its Hansea.ic features, its lofty storehouses, and narrow, winding streets. Ihe oldest church was destroyed by fire a* far back as 1547, and although tne present building dates from" the latter half of the sixteenth century there was a very thorough restoration in ISB3, when a new organ, one of the largest in the world, was erected. The castle has often been rebuilt.

Its crulf is 100 miles long and sixty miles wide, the town being situated at the southern extremity. eight miles above tho mouth of the Dvina. which gives communication, by canals, with the basins of the Dnieper and the olga. lliere is direct railway communication with the fertile parts ot houthern Russia. The gulf entrance freezes over one-third of the year, when the larger vessels have to find berths at Cst-Dvinsk. The islands of Oesel, Dago, Mohn, and W onus lie athtvart the entrance to the gulf.