GERMANS AVOIDING FINAL BATTLE WITH ALLIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15719, 21 September 1914, Page 6

GERMANS AVOIDING FINAL BATTLE WITH ALLIES.

WILL PROBABLY EVACUATE BELGIUM SHORTLY.

ALL AVAILABLE FORCES REQUIRED FOR AUSTRIA'S AID. SECOND LINE OF TROOPS TO DEFEND WESTERN FRONTIER. (Received September 20. 4.35 p.m.) Rome, September 19. The impression is prevalent in diplomatic circles that Germany has realised tie impossibility of extensive operations against France. She will probably evacuate Belgium shortly, and will concentrate her second line along the Belgian and French frontiers, pushing all her available forces against the Russians, who are threatening the almost undefended Austro-German frontier. According to advices from Berne, in Switzerland, despatches from German railway centres announce that a sudden general movement of concentration towards the Luxemburg frontier, where countless empty transport trains are waiting, is proceeding. It is believed that the instant the retreating Germans reach the border it is intended to transport all the first line of troops to Russia without giving the allies final battle. Only a sufficient number of the second line will be left to defend Germany against the invasion of the Franco-British forces. Advices from Vienna state that the Austrians hope, in the forthcoming battle at Przcmysl to hold up Russians, who are concentrating in the vicinity, until large German forces arrive to crush the Russian troops from Poland. In Petrograd it is stated that German troops were interspersed among the Austrians to raise the spirits of the latter after the Russian attack. In one locality the Austrians fled, while the Germans perished to the last mail.

Przomyal is at town in (Jalicia, Austria, 60 miles west of Lemberg. It is ' situated on the River San, and is one of the strongest fortresses in Galicii.