RUSSIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15444, 5 September 1914, Page 9

RUSSIA.

GALICIAN PRISONERS. GLAD TO BE OFF DUTY. "Times" ancJ Sydney "Sun" Services. Press Association—By Tel.—Copyright. LONDON, Sept. 3. Among the thousands of Austrian prisoners captured by Russians arc litany Galicians, who declare, that it would liavo been a betrayal of Austria for them not to have fought. "Nevertheless we cannot fight against our natures, and to bo taken prisoners is the most agreeable way of quieting our consciences." THE INFANTRYMEN. SOLID AND STOLID. \ ienna papers say that neither victory nor defeat affects a Russian infantryman. Slowly but surely ho makes trenches -and if driven back he builds a new defence. The Austrians will have to huv every inch of ground with their blood. >

BEATING THE AUSTRIANS. Received 11.20 p.m., Sept. 4th. PETROGRAD, Sept. 3Official. —During seven days the Russians took over two hundred guns and seventy thousand prisoners in Galicia. The Russians now occupy Lemberg. VARIOUS REPORTS.

OF RUSSIAN PROWESS

Received 12.10 a.m., Sept. sth. PETROGRAD., Sept. 4 (a.m.)

Official—Apart from the enormous number of killed the Austrians in Eastern Galicia have lost forty thousand prisoners, including many generals. The route of the Austrian retreat was so encumbered with carts, guns and other impedimenta that the pursuers were unable to use the roads. Other advices state that some million men were engaged in the operations. Upwards of half the Austrian army is fighting in Southern Poland, their left flank closely co-operating with two German army corps, facing Breslau. The Austrian left sought to envelope the Russian forces in Poland. The! extreme right endeavoured to outflank the Podolia army. Meanwhile the main Austrian force was directed against the heart of the Russian position in Poland. The enveloping movement in' the west failed,- and the Germans were withdrawn to the north, to deal with the victorious Russian advance. Austria's centre at Lublin was vainly launched against, Russia's finest battalions, while Austria's ~ extreme right sustained terrible losses. The worst blow was dealt by Ruziky. The lattew's force, leaving Livno, -advanced southwest, spreading fanwise to involve the districts north and south of lemberg, and threatening to cut the Lublin army's communications.

LATEST NEWS. Received 1.25 a.m., Sept. 5 th. PETROGRAt), Sept. 4 (a.m.). In the Lemburg engagement the Austrians transferred several army corps from the west side of "tlie Vistula, and moving tliem behind Lublin hurled them at Rouzsky's forces, and a desperate onslaught followed, attended, as officially announced, by a whole series of disasters to the Austrians. Fresh German troops are daily ap-' pearing on the eastern front, the Laiidsturm replacing fcliem in the western ; 12.42 centimetre guns have also been brought, which were responsible for Samsonoff's reverse. ' There are indications that after the Russian counter attacks leading to the German retreat, the Germans are now transferring their defence from the Thorn and Cracow front to the Posen and Cra-cow line. The abandonment of the defence on the line of the river .Warta represents a gain to the Russians, inasmuch as westward from the Wart a to the Oder the German front is entirely exposed.