EASTERN THEATRE

Southland Times, Issue 17757, 7 September 1917, Page 5

EASTERN THEATRE

DVINSK NOT EVACUATED. (By Telegraph,—Press Assn.—Copyright,) (Australian anti N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, September 6. Received September 6, 8.45 p.m. The evacuation of Dvinsk, cabled earlier, was based on a misreport.

THE LOSS OF RIGA. GERMAN THRUST ASTUTELY TIMED. HOTBED OF GERMAN AGITATION. LONDON, Sept. 6. Received Sept. 7, 12.20 a.m. The Daily Chronicle’s Petrograd correspondent states that the position on the Riga front was most serious for a fortnight. The Moscow Convention hourly expected the capture of Riga, but the Germans bided their time. Otherwise the Left Party would have been persuaded to trust Korniloff, instead of believing that he was trying to create a panic. Directly the Convention was over the Germans struck. A Lettish battalion had abandoned the Uxkull bridgehead a month before. The Germans crossed the river by pontoons. Some Russian units counter-attacked, but the rest fled. The Germans pushed across the Jagel within sight of Riga, which was thereupon evacuated. It has been a centre of German agitation for months. During the fraternising the Germans gave the Lettish soldiers free trips to their Courland homes, and many Letts finally believed that it mattered not whether the Germans or Russians gave them their desired autonomy. GERMAN REPORT. LONDON, Sept. 6. Received Sept. 7, 12.20 a.m. Wireless German official ; The northern wing and centre of the Twelfth Russian Army is rapidly retreating.