FALL OF PRZEMYSL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 133, 7 June 1915, Page 7

FALL OF PRZEMYSL

MERE EPISODE IN COMPLICATED STRUGGLE RUSSIAN SOLDIERS BUTCHERED ' ' < PETROGRAD, sth June. The fall of Przemysl has been received with wonderful stoicism by all classes. It is regarded as a mere episode in the great complicated struggle, and its loss is considered temporary. ' Experts declare that sound generalship could not risk a large Russian force being cut off in the fortress, especially as the ever-increasing concentrations of Austro-Germans towards the Stryj front show their determination to force a way to Lemberg at all costs. A chaplain with the Third Army, in' retreat in West Galicia, narrates that many German regiments took no prisoners. They bayoneted both the wounded and the doctors attending them. On one occasion they entered aburning wood, whence a Russian battalion had retired. They were all surrounded by the flames. On another occasion the German cavalry, on capturing them, took a Russian company into an open space, and the whole regiment held a competition in cutting down and butchering the Russians to the last man. A German airman threw bombs on children gathered round a roadside ikon. Many were killed. The Austrians often vainly protested against tho German barbarities. The chaplain adds that German patrols at several villages in the Pratezk district took every hundredth inhabitant from his house, left his house in ruin, and threatened to shoot the inmates with their revolvers unless the inmates delivered all their provisions to the last loaf. . The fall of Przemysl emphasises the necessity for a greater supply of munitions and equipment which the Russian industries are unable to .provide single-handed. Hence the Russians must assume the defensive till these arrive, holding the enemy's forces. REJOICINGS IN BERLIN AND VIENNA AMSTERDAM, 6th June. There are great rejoicings in Berlin and Vienna over the fall of Przemysl. It is noteworthy that the fall of tho fortress was promptly followed by the strict closing of the Belgian frpntier, a step usually presaging a great movement of German troops. PETROGRAD, 6th June, Correspondents point out that Germany nopes to return large forces " to Flanders if she is able to push the Piussians back sufficiently to render the movement safe. LONDON, 6th June. The Cologne Gazette states that the Kaiser arrived at the Austrian headquarters on 4th June to congratulate the Archduke Frederick on the capture of Przemysl, v THE MOVETOWARDS LEMBERG AMSTERDAM, 6tli June. A German official message states : — "After fighting'we reached the villages arouno^ Przemysl. Our booty has not yet been surveyed. General yon Marwitz stormed the heights on both sides of the Mystatvcze ( ?), and General Linsingen is about to cross the lower Stryj, north-east-ward of tho town of Stryj."