THE BEAR AT BAY.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 789, 13 August 1915, Page 6

THE BEAR AT BAY.

An Empty Victory.

E VEN the German press has been obliged to admit disappointment over the poor result —from the point of view of practical advantage— of the occupation of Warsaw. The Berliners seem to have jumped too hastily to the conclusion that Warsaw, once an German hands, a disheartened Russia would make a separate peace. But Russia is not disheartened or downhearted. On the- contrary, the one dominant note of the, speeches in the Duma was a determinatiori to proceed with the war to the bitter end. The Russian bear will set his teeth, and, with grim patience and unabated courage. await the day of revenge. Latest news from the eastern front is decidedly more cheering. So far at least the German dream of a Russian debacle on the Vistula, of a second Sedan, has not been realised, and its chances of realisation seem further away than ever. It would be unwise to read too much aTirj too optomistically inlto the latest cablegrams, but, taken as a whole, the position in Russia is much more hopeful for the Allies and their cause than appeared to be the case last week. As for the German project jof "sweetening" the Poles by promise of a semi-autonomy, it is not likely to gull a people who, in German Poland, have been so foully illtreated for years past. If Poland is to be a ''buffer State," it will be under Russian, not Hun, protection.