RUSSIAN ARMIES

Evening Star, Issue 15928, 7 October 1915, Page 6

RUSSIAN ARMIES

RETAKE THE OFFENSIVE. MUNITIONS NOW AMPLE. PETROGRAD, October 6. (Received"October 7, at 8.45 a.m.) The newspapers here announce that the Russian armies have now enormous quantities of munitions. The strategic position has consequently completely changed. A communique states: The Russians occupied the German trenches near Fxiednchstadt (south of Riga), and captured a number of villages in the lake region eastward of Yilna. and also to the south of the Pripet River, after strenuous fighting. JOFFRE’S OFFENSIVE. OFFICIAL GERMAN SNEER. London ‘Times’ and Sydney 'Sun’ Services. LONDON, October 6. A German communique sneers at the Anglo-French description of the successes in the west, “gained by a seven-fold superior army, with American and other munitions,” as brilliant victories. September 14, which, it says, ran as follows:—“ The present moment is very favorable for a general attack, because a new contingent of Kitchener’s army lias landed, and Germany will be unable to concentrate adequate infantry and artillery reserves, thus guaranteeing our success.” GERMAN RHETORIC AND THE UPSHOT. London ‘Times’ and Sydney ‘Sun’ Services. LONDON, October 6. A French wireless message says that i>n September 22 General Von Fleck, commanding portion of the German army in the Champagne, issued the following order:—■“ Comrades, let us swear that each of us will die rather than surrender. Let us throw back the enemy at the point of the bayonet and pelt them with, hand grenades- Thus , our first line will he a wall of steel.” The German army’s reply was that 25,000 of them surrendered. The ffigh. Commissioner reports, London, October 6 (5.55 p.m.) -.—There is a bombardment on the whole western front, 'and it is particularly violent in the region of Artois. South of Givenchy progress was .Bade by/the* use of grenades.

KITCHENER’S CONFIDENCE. LABOR DELEGATE’S STORY. London ‘Times’ and Sydney ‘Sun’ Service*. LONDON, October 6. The ‘ Manchester Guardian ’ reports a member of tho Labor Congress, when addressing a recruiting meeting, as having said Lord Kitchener told the Congress that there was no room for pessimists, and that he added : “Give- me the men and munitions I want, and X will guarantee on my personal reputation that we hold the war in tho hollow of our hands. I know how many men we w.ynt for the Army and the munition factories.” SWISS NEUTRALITY. PROTECTION AGAINST GERMANY. London ‘Times’ and Sidney ‘Sun’ Services. LONDON, October 6. The ‘ Paris Journal ’ learns that the Swiss Federal Council have ordered the mobilisation on October 25 of the Swiss cavalry. This order has caused astonishment throughout the country. The units will be grouped on the German frontier. A REAL HERO. SAPPER CARLTON’S DEATH. “THE LUCK OF THE GAME.” SYDNEY, October 7. (Received October 7, at 8.20 a.m.) Lance-corporal Foster* has told this story of Sapper Oarlyon ; “ One of our officers was sniped by a Turk, and Carlyon went out and brought him in on his back. He was recommended for the "Victoria Cross, but two days later he was killed in his own dugout, being struck by a fragment of shell. He was a real hero._ Everyone in my section looked up to him even more than to our officers. He would climb the parapets and hand over the wounded, or do anything else. Ho was a rare dare-devil. It just shows you the luck of the game. Carlyon and 50 others were all in dugouts in as safe a position as could be possible in an area of danger. Yet when he took every un 06 amongst bullets, shell fire, and shrapnel ho never received a scratch.” AUSTRALASIAN WOUNDED. OFFICERS AT WANDSWORTH. EXCELLENT ARRANGEMENTS. LONDON, October 6. (Received October 7, at 8.55 a.m.) Ij lo , friends of the Australian and, rs&W' Zealand wounded officers who axe in hospital in, London, could -see where they are quartered they would feel no anxiety on their account. The majority are now in Wandsworth, the third London General Hospital. They sit in beautiful .grounds in which new huts have been erected, iron and others of stucco, lined with fibrous cement, making bright and attractive interiors. Tho inmates read and walk in the grounds, and are taken for motor rides. Three concerts or other entertainments are given weekly. The outside wards are connected with the hospital by long glass-gnclosod corridors. Many captains and ■ lieutenants trom each .State are in a ward at the extreme end of the corridors, and it has been christened ‘Tipperary Ward’ because the Australians said “It’s a lone wav to go. ’ - J (Received October 7, at 9.15 a.m.) Dotted around the hospital grounds are revolving huts for open-air treatment, which are turned according to the direction of the wind and rain. Most of the wounded New Zealand officers are progressing well. Major Dawson is able to do temporary duties at Weymouth; Major Scholfield (shranntl wound) is on leave; Major M‘Lean (chest wound) is still in hospital; Chaplainmayor Luxford (lost leg) and Captain Hardham. V.C. (injured lung), are both convalescent. Seven thousand wounded Ausiiai’ans are now in England. Many of them have lost a limb. Two artificial limb makers have been brought from Victoria, and are at work at Harefield. Twenty soldiers at Harefield alone have ost a i’ev. Artificial limbs will be made from Government material, it is estimated, at jess than the usual cost. AMERICA AND THE TW : O BLOCKADES. PROTEST TO BRITAIN. RIGHT OF SEIZURE CONTESTED'. WASHINGTON, October 6. (Received October 7, at 9.10 a.m.) The Arabic question has now been settled on the basis of Germany apologising and paying compensation for the American lives lost. The United States Administration are preparing to negotiate with Great Britain over her alleged interference -with trade. A new American Note is being prepared, contending that the British Government mueb show that goods consigned to a neutral destination which are destroyed or seized are intended for Germany, and contending also that the assumption, that all foodstuffs going to Germany are intended for army purposes is not justified. SUBMARINES BUSY AGAIN. LONDON, October 6. (Received October 7, at 8.45 a-m.) The steamer Sailor Prince has -been sunk. It is not known what number of survivors was picked up. The steamer Haydon lias ■ been sunk. Tig*- .Reported tgvbaye beea^awi^

APT RETALIATION AFTER THE WAR. PENALISING ENEMY SHIPPING. LONDON, October 6. (Received October 7, at 11.45 a.m.), A committee of the Australian and New Zealand Merchants’ Association resolved that as German submarine activity has inflicted considerable losses on British shipping hero and in the Dominions, the committee suggest that the British and colonial Governments should levy immediately after the war special port duties, in addition to the customary port rates, on all .German and Austrian vessels entering any. ports within the Empire. A STUDENT’S DEATH. CALLOUS ILL-TREATMENT. SYDNEY, October 7. ' (Received October 7. at 8.30 a.m.) Advices from’ London announce the death of Joseph Vial, son of a prominent Newcastle resident, ns a result of German ill-treatment. At the outbreak of the war ho was studying music in Germany, and was arrested and imprisoned in a cell with a consumptive. He contracted the disease, and after months of cruel treatment he was liberated and proceeded to England, where he was taken into a. hospital, but he never recovered. MUNITION MAKING. LEARNING FROM INDIA. MELBOURNE, October 7. (Received October 7, at 8.30 a.m.) A committee proceeds to India to-day to investigate on behalf of the Federal Defence authorities the establishment of arsenals there. A ZINC CARGO CONDEMNED BY PRIZE COURT. MERTONS FIRM CASTIGATED. LONDON. October 6. (Received October 7, at 10.55 a.m.) Sir Samuel Evans, President of the Prize Court, in delivering judgment on the steamer Biklster case, said that the sole questions for decision related to the shipowners’ (Gunn and Co.) claims for freight and to the Mertons Company’s claim for the return of £5,000 paid to the shipowners in respect of freight. The president held that Mertons could not be a receiver as against the shipowners, who had discharged their obligation by giving up the alien goods. For whomsoever the £5,000 had been paid, it was intended to preserve the goods for the owners, whom Mertons knew to bo enemies, and to gain advantage for themselves or for their co-adventurers, the Metallgessellschaft. • They thus did not hesitate to engage in commercial intercourse with the country’s enemies. Their claim was without foundation. It required much assurance to launch such a claim, and to persevere with it showed a reckless want of appreciation of the possible consequences. The judgment of the Court was that the cargo be condemned as a prize cargo, and that out of the proceeds £2,554, the balance of the sum awarded, be paid to the shipowners, and that Mertons’ claim against the shipowners and the Crown be disallowed. AUCKLAND PATRIOTIC FUND. [Peh United Pbess Association.] AUCKLAND, October 7. The Auckland Savings Bank Trustees have contributed £2,0C0 to the carnival executive patriotic fund. [The Auckland Committee aim at securing a quarter of a million sterling. So far approximately £150,000 has been collected. Included in this amount are the following sums .—One of £7.500. two of £5,000. four of £2,000, twelve of £I,OOO, and twenty of £500.] SEND-OFF TO NEW UNITS AND NINTH REINFORCEMENTS. The first portion of Otago’s quota for the new units and 9th Reinforcements will leave Dunedin on _ Tuesday next, the remaining half leaving on the following lues day (October 19). A large number leave Dunedin with these forces, and the public of the City can be relied on to give both lots a great send-off. The sub-com-mittee of the City Council and the Recruiting Committee are now making the necessary arrangements, which will be similar to previous ones, the train leaving about 11.45 a.m. on the 12th. The sendoif will take place at the Railway Station, but the men will be marched through the main street to the place of send-off, headed by the 4th Regiment Band. RECRUITING DEMONSTRATION. The Chairman of the Recruiting Committee writes:—-The weekly recruiting demonstration will be held on Friday this week, instead of Saturday, and a good programme will again be presented. There will be excellent speeches, and the Kaikorai Baud will render patriotic music. Should it be wet, the meeting will be held in the Garrison Hall. The call for men is urgent, and if we are to voluntarily supply our quota, the men of Otago will have to come forward in very much larger numbers. In a very short time something like 1,000 wounded and invalided men will return to New Zealand's shores. Are they going to be told that we in Otago cannot send enough men to help replace them? M e will cheer these men when they return, but they will take tittle note of the sincerity of those cheers if we cannot raise men as well as cheers. Then it is the duty of every man and every woman to at once act as recruiting agents, and endeavor to place before the eligible male portion of this district the reasons and the necessity for at once offering their services. Because some success has attended the operations of the allied troops in Flanders, in Russia, and the Dardanelles, we must not imagine that,the war is nearly over, and that there is no further need for heavy enlistments. The war is not over, and though to-aay wo 1 hear of our success, to-morrow we may hear of failures—failures for the time being. That it will come right in the end v*e must not forgone moment doubt, but this can bo brought about only by tho work of our men in the firing line and others making guns and ammunition for them. Only by complete unity can we succeed. FLAG REALISES £8,250. [Pee United Press Association.) FEILDINO, October 7. _A flag which was sold last night in aid of the wounded soldiers’ fund realised £8,250. TUNNELLING COMPANY, Thirty-six men from Otago went North to join tho tunnelling company to-day. Charles Dickson, Herbert Morris, Charles Cameron, and John Edward Macmanus went from Dunedin. Lance-corporal A. 0, Burns, Wellington Infantry, reported missing and believed to have been killed on August 6, was 26 years of age, and was brought up in Dunedin, being educated at the Albany Street School. Ho was employed on the New Zealand railways, and about two years ago was transferred to Masterton, at which place he enlisted. He was one of the first to enlist in the Samoan Force, but was sent hack from Wellington owing to the number being in excess of what was required. He then joined the Main Expeditionary Force. He was previously wounded, but rejoined his regiment abont three weeks before he was reported missing. He was an ex-member of the Union Football Club, and was known in swimming circles, having won two or three diving events. His parents reside at 79 Bay .View road, .St, Hilda,