AUSTRO-RUSSIAN WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLVIII, 18 August 1914, Page 3

AUSTRO-RUSSIAN WAR

STRONG LY-DEFEXDED -FRONTIER)

"General Ktucpatkin, in a candid criticism of the Russian Army, has dealt with the possibility of a war between Russia and Austro-Hungary. He says: ."'The people of Austro-Hungary consist of .many races. Of its population, 24.1 per cent is German; the numerous Slav groups comprise 47 per cent. (Bohemians, Moravians, avid Slovaks, ]6.9 per cent.; Croatian-Servians, 11 par cent; Poles 8 per cent; .Russians 8 per .cent.; Slavonians, 3 per cent.j ; Hungarians, 16.2 per cent.; Roumanians, 6.6 ier_ cent. ; Jews, 4.5 per cent.; and Italians, 1.6 per cent. As regards the feeling of these various races towards Russia, the Germans, who live at a dis tance from our frontiers are not hostile; the Hungarians, if not open enemies, are, at any" rate, unfriendly on account of the part we took in suppressing the rebellion of 1849, and their latent dislike is fanned by the greatest of the Slav groups, the Poles. The rest of the Slavs are sympathetic with their kinsmen in Russia, but the main motive fcr this sentiment is fear lest they should be absorbed by the 'Germans or Mavgars. ' The Austrian frontiers are nowhere B!m P' c >. h «t over.since the conclusion cf the Inple Alliance she has turned her attention—in a military sense—almcst exclusively to her Russian frdtitier. On glancing at the map, one's first thought is that the natural bcundarv between the two countries shoiild run the Carpathian Range, but the actual frontier is a long way on the Russian side o, it. Galicia forms, so to speak, a glacis cf this main obstacle (the Carpathians), running, down towards Ri„. a-a, and it has recently grown up in To a splendidly-prepared entrenched camp, connected to the other provinces of Austro-Hungary by numerous roads across the Carpathians. It is stronglv fortified and stocked with supplies "jf ovovy nature, both for a protracted do* ioi.ee or an advance in force into Ruslohnnnn 1 ' stna , ca ". ""«' concentrate 1.000.000 men in this area within a very shot s;;ace of time. Fcr 760 miles we ia\e a common frontier, and the noner 'faoho., of the Vl«t»Ia-f,-om Xepol.mmtsa to Zavikhosf—arid a S Z I dirv {''f, . Zb r." oa '. form a natural bounm this direction. These rivers, howover possess no strategic value. The wav ;:r;i' n p ed & four Hncs ° f ™»- r ' ( \ £ fc ar *«»'sa. on the Warsaw(yaugorod l.no; (b) at Radziviloff; (cj 1 1