The Waipawa Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1917. CURRENT TOPICS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7912, 28 July 1917, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1917. CURRENT TOPICS.

Russia’s Hour of Trial.

Late cables indicate no improvement in the general outlook in regard to the Russian situation. The troops are still rerteating, and the “Morning Post’s” Petrograd correspondent states that the details of the collapse almost stagger belief. On the other hand the “Times” correspondent points out that Russian psychology is capable of extraordinary changes, and the position may yet be saved. The capture of Tarnopol will prove of great advantage to the Germans. It stands on the Odessa railway, only a dozen miles from the Russian frontier. The area to the westward of Tarnopol has been the scene of very furious fighting during the earlier stages of the war. The town first fell into the hands of the Russians on August 27th, 1914, when Brussiloff captured it after a heavy engagement, which lasted for nearly three days. After a heavy bombardment the Austrian entrenchments were stormed with the bayonet. In the town itself the Austrians made a stubborn resistance. They barricaded the streets and mounted machine guns on church towers and the roofs of public buildings, and the place was only taken after hand-to-hand fighting from house to house. The loss of Tarnopol compelled von Aufferberg’s right to fall back from the Sereth towards the Lemberg trenches. There the battle tide swept far to the west of Tarnopol will the great Russian drive towards Cracow, but it swept back again during Mackensen’s great advance from the Donajee, when the Russians were driven back to the Sereth. They held Tarnopol, offering a grim resistance amid the tangle of hills to the westward of the town, the necessity for holding which made a deep sag in the Russian line southeast of Dubno. On September 7th, 1915, Ivanoff decided to deliver a counter-attack against the German

positions. The Third Division of the Prussion Guard, the 48th Division of Reserve, and a great artillery force had been moved against Tarnopol, where they were surprised and broken by an assault from Brussiloff’s army. In the fighting the enemy lost the better part of an army corps, nearly all the heavy guns in front of the town were captured, and 150 officers and 7000 men were taken prisoner in one day. Next day the advance continued, the Germans retiring to the west with a total loss of 17,000 men and over .a hundred guns. Gradually the enemy was driven back till at the beginning of last year the trench line ran along the Sereth 30 miles eastward of Tarnopol, and in this region it remained until the last fortnight, the line in the Tarnopol sector remaining almost stationary when Brussiloff drove his great bulge into the enemy’s line to the north and south of the town.

Lenin’s Influence. The arrest is announced of Lenin, who has written to the newspapers denying that he ever received a penny of German funds. But the evidence is against him. When Lenin took over the “Pravda” it was a very small organ, with a circulation of a few thousands only; but, thanks to liberal funds, said to have been supplied by Germany, the circulation increased to the neighborhood of 100,000 copies. It circulated largely amongst the men of the Russian Navy, since the sailors and marines are picked from the classes able to read and write, and it has probably been responsible for much of the trouble at Kronstadt. It did not have so much influence with the Army, as many of the soldiers were unable to read it. This paper advocated the very extreme of socialism, and insisted that all land, tools and factories should be divided between the workmen and peasants. It was also strongly pro-German in tone, and advocated making a separate peace. Lenin was vehemently opposed in regard to his land policy by the Cossacks, who were naturally averse to having their land taken from them, while the majority of the peasantry were against his peace policy. It was in the towns that he found the bulk of his adherents, but even here many who favored his socialist aims were opposed to his pro-German propaganda. M. Kerensky tried to get Lenin to hold over the question of division of the land till next November, when the Russian elections will be held; but it is said that a number of Russian officers insisted that Lenin be hynted out of the country forthwith, and his flight is probably due to concern for his own safety.