THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16952, 3 September 1915, Page 6

THE CAMPAIGNS.

One effect of the Russian fevcrses has apparently been a drastic revision of some of the higher commands. Back in May there were important changes in the army as well as in the War Office in Petrograd, though the details were never made public, and it was certain that the failure of several of the armies to carry out the tasks assigned to them in Poland would bring about the cashiering of important officers. It is, unfortunately, a Russian tradition that the army must suffer repeated defeats before incompetent genera's are dismissed, but the earlier u'istory of the present war suggested that the Czar was unexpectedly unfortunate in the officering of his forces. *• ranee, it will be remembered', had to dispense with the services of a very high percentage of army corps commanders. Austria cashiered no fewer than seven generals in one week. Russia suffered one notablo defeat and several minor reverses through obviously incompetent leadership, but the rapidity with which she recovered after these incidents suggested that she had several leaders of outstanding capacity. The hardest worker of them all, the man who has been most/ consistently in the midst of the struggle, is General Ruzsky, who has now been appointed to command the whole of the northern group of armies. The patient, painstaking Alexieff becomes Chief of the General Staff, in succession to Lieutenant-Gen-eral Januschkevitch, who is rewarded for his year's services by appointment to a provincial post. Ruzsky is the hard hitter. It was he who smashed the Austrians in Galicia last year, an'l who superintended the fine defence of the Niemen front after the big reverse in E3-st Prussia. We have heard of him in central Poland, in Galicia again, and then meeting and checking Mackensen's tremendous offensive. Hj seems to be the hope of Russia in these days.

The position on the eastern frout shows little change. The Germans have pushed their way a few versts nearer Riga. They are held on the Vilia and or. the Niemen front. Southward? from Grodno the Russians are retiring steadily, but we have no exact information regarding the more critical sectors, north of Grodno, whore a dangerous German advance vrns threatening trouble to the armies at Vilna and at Grodno, and south of Bialystok, where the Russian retreat was unduly hasty. In eastern Galicia the Russian. > are retreating, but inflicting 'heavy losses on the enemy in the process. We have little news from France. An unofficial message hints at the probability of important developments on the western front, in which the growing British army is expected to play a bigger part, but surmises are not of real value just uotv. From the Dardanelles region comes an official report of a useful nd vance, in which the Australians and New Zealanders were particularly prominent.