Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, SEP. 10, 1915. THE STRUGGLE IN THE EAST.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13785, 10 September 1915, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, SEP. 10, 1915. THE STRUGGLE IN THE EAST.

It is somewhat, significant that with the assumption pf the supreme command of the Russian armies "by the Czar news comes of important Russian successes at several points m the vast Eastern theatre. The victory at Tarnopol, m which the .element of a carefully plan-, ned surprise for the enemy appears to have been the chief contributing factor, gives confidence that not only from the Vistula but from -other' directions 'the Russians will succeed m extricating their armies"- from the enveloping movements brought against them, ..and -that the hour having arrived for a counter-offensive the Czar's armies wjll be able tc deliver many similar smashing blows against the enemy. It has been pointed out that m all previous wars m which they have been engaged,- though' the odds have often been heavily against them, Russian strategy has succeeded m. effecting successful withdrawals from just such . enclosures as Hindenburg, Mackensen and other German commanders, have been endeavoring to effect. *It was so m the Napoleonic' campaign, m the Crimea, and also m the Rtisso- Japanese war. Russian territory ia so wide and there are so many 'millions of men who can be called upon to defend it that we have the strongest grounds for con- 1 fidence that history will again repeat itself and„ before long., our enemies will realise m the bitterness" of utter defeat the hopeless futility of the task upon which they are engaged. Not until the history .of tliis war ha? been written, ' the London Times points out, ccarn r the world fully realise with what magnificent tenacity our Russ/an Allies are stemming the German-Austrian advance. The enemy have been making terrific attemps upon the Russian lines and, the situation- has been, exceedingly anxious for our friends and. therefore for ourselves and ~ for the rest of the Allies. But the Russians have been preparing to meet th.eyenenry v at certain positions, and they receive his onslaughts with' the imperturable stubbornness of their race. . "The a^my opposed to Von Mackenseny'^ cays the. Times, "is the best which Russia .'.lias placed m the field during the war. It is the cream of the Russian forces and is led by a new [general who inspires boundless confidence m his men. ' We know how the Russian soldiers have fought, m advance and m retreat, during the earlier stages of the campaign. We remember the fierce and . costly, resistance they offered Von Maekehseri on the Dunajec some two months ago. It wasonly by sheer weight of metal that their line was Woken at last, and when it. was broken they fell back 'by anY orderly re,tirement to the San. There the Germans had to pause, m order to bring up guns and .material, and it was not until tbe fall of Prze'mysl and Lem-

berg that the Russians withdrew to the line of the Bug. of the Zlota, Lipa, and oi" tlie Dniester. fn all these movements, as well as, m the fierce lighting •further north m J l.lvi valley of Ijho Wieprz, though they suffered heavily, they inflicted terrible losses upon the enemy. At no moment m the whole of the strenuous campaign have the I'ussian armies ceased to be armies "m being," or have they failed to keep m touch with each other. Tho .punishment which they .. inflicted upon the Austrians at Wilkolaz was so heavy that not improbably it caused the Germans to change their entire plan of operations. Our correspondent believes that our Allies can now make a fight three times as good as they made m the earlier part of the Galician operations. If this be the case the Germans have still a terrible conflict before them." The Russian Government, the Times adds, wisely makes no attempt to hide the critical character of the position from the people. The public, it is stated, are "prepared for the worst." Throughout the Empire they are praying for a blessing on their arms. "It is m the spirit of the Russian Armies and of the Russian people that and our other Allies rest our assured hopes of ultimate victory m the East. The Germans expected revolutions m Russia, as they expected the dissolution of the British Empire, when they rushed into tJhe war. .Their, calculation has proved as false m the one case as m theother. Their unprovoked assault has drawn all classes of the Russian nation together as they have seldom been drawn before., They feel now, as they felt when Napoleon with his subject German kings launched his armies against them, that the conflict wantonly thrust upon them ,is a holy, as well as a national war. They have not forgotten ' the power of resistance to an invader, however strong and however well-armed; which the vast extent, of their territory affords them, and they are ready to use it to the full. Look at the map and see how far the Germans have advanced on Russian soil, and reflect what it has cost them to get there. They have barely succeeded m getting a precarious footing m ,the Baltic provinces and m Poland after a year of fighting which has cost them countless lives. Beyond these provinces, whose borders £hey have, scarcely nibbled): -the immense VE*_ip^ intact. Supposing that Warsaw falls, and other fortresses were to; be .captured one by .one, wouldN that break the courage of Russia and induce her to submit to the enemiesL of her.,greathess, of. her., race, and of her Church? We look for an answer to. her past history, to the conduct of her troops and people m the darkest hours of the present war, and, above all, to the indomitable temperament of her sons. She has sustained terrible blows m the campaign, as she has often sustained them before. But now, as m the past, she has shown how to endure- and to return them. Now, as m the past, they have but purified and strengthened her invincible faith Jh her. own destiny." ...