The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1915. THE STRUGGLE FOR WARSAW.

Southland Times, Issue 17483, 26 July 1915, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1915. THE STRUGGLE FOR WARSAW.

There is no lack of news with regard to the fighting in the eastern theatre this morning. It comes from various sources, and it is reasonably consistent and intelligible. The Russian correspondent of the London Morning Post, who is described by the High Commissioner as “well-informed,” has sent his paper a despatch presenting an explanation of the great Russian retreat w'hich we would fain accept if we could. He tells us that the Grand Duke Nicholas has been playing his enemy “as a fisherman plays a fish.” The suggestion that the Grand Duke has always had command of the position is, unfortunately, one that will not square with any "one of a number of important facts. First of all it may be accepted as invariably true that no military leader will retire if he can advance, and in this case it is certainly true that the Russian Com-mander-in-Chief, having fought his way to the Duiiajec and the Carpathians, would have held every yard of the ground he had won if he could. Having taken Przemysl after a long five months' siege, the Russians would not have allowed the enemy to recapture it if they could have prevented him. Holding the key of the Galician railways at Lemberg, the Russians would not have given it up if they had not been compelled to. The theory of the Morning Post's correspondent is not held by the correspondent of the London Times, who is at least as wellinformed, for he told us after his 1400-mile motor tour of the Russian front that steps had been taken to

prevent a repetition of the disaster which overtook the Russians in Galicia, nor can it he reconciled with Mr Lloyd George’s references at Manchester to "the severe Russian setback" and the German “triumph.” The Grand Duke Nicholas would have held the Dunajec line if he had been able, but he was driven back so fast that an army corps in the Carpathians was cut off. and one division sacrificed itself in order that the other might escape. He would have held the Wisioka line if he could, and he made a great effort to bring the Austro-Ger-man advance to a standstill on the San. He will not lose possession of the Lnblin-Cholm railway if he can keep it, and all Europe is now hoping that the limit of the retirement has been reached, and that the resiliency of the Russians will assert itself. '1 he news this morning is more hopeful and encouraging than it has been for setne time past. The position is stili serious, as the enveloping Gcunan wings are still steadily closing in on Warsaw. South of the Polish capital an Austro-German army is on the Vistula at Ivangorod, having forced the Russians to fall back from Radom and eventually to cross the river. To the north of Warsaw the Germans are on the right hank of the Narew at one place at least. East of Wa,rsaw ton Mackonseu is pressing forward between the Vistula and the Wieprz, and his progress has not yet been checked. Further east, however, at Sokal, the Russians have taken the offensive, compelling the Austrians to fall back and taking some of the enemy’s trenches. The indications are, however, that the Russians are now in a much stronger position, as they must he if for no other reason than that their front has been greatly contracted, and the tone of the Rmtsian official organs is one of great confidence. Once before the Austrians were at ivangorod, and the Germans were within fifteen miles of Warsaw, yet neither Warsaw nor Ivangorod fell. To-day the position is more critical, for von Mackensen was not then between the Vistula and Wieprz, and von Mackensen’s thrust is Warsaw’s great peril to-day, hut even so the Grand Duke Nicholas may now he in a position to lead his troops forward. It is hinted in one message that he may find it necessary to fall hack upon the Warsaw-Brest Eitovsk line, but that line and the Narew front would make Warsaw so dangerously salient, that it would be practically untenable. We will hope that the Russians have made their last retirement, and tha,t the opportunity for which they must be waiting with impatience is about to he given them—the opportunity to attack the enemy The valour is there, there are no braver troops in the world: the question is whether the Russians can get the artillery control -which is necessary to success.