THE VISTULA BATTLE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14464, 1 December 1914, Page 5

THE VISTULA BATTLE.

FIGHTING VERY STUBBORN. ENORMOUS LOSSES BY GERMANS. Press Association—Telegraph.—Copyright. PETROGRAD, November 30. Official.—Between the Vistula and the Warta the Germans continue to maintain their fortified position on the Stry-kow-Zigerz-Schadek-Zounska-Volia line. Fighting is very stubborn in the Stry-kow-Zigers district, whore we captured cannon and machine-guns, and several hundred prisoners. Wo engaged the enemy on the Glwo-Bieliawy-Sahota front, the Gormans counter-attacking on the left hank of the Vistula. Prisoners describe the Gorman losses as enormous. Many battalions have lost all their oflicors. The Austrians eastward of Cracow were defeated and -pursued. Wo captured 1200 in the Carpathians. The Russians in several districts in the vicinity of the Mazurian lakes and the Angerap River drove back the Germans to fortified positions. THE GERMANS HEMMED IN. ENTIRE BATTALIONS SURRENDERING. PETROGRAD,. November 30. The Novoo Vremya says the enemy are pressed on all sides striving to force their way to Strykow through a steadily narrowing corridor. The Russian occupation of Brezin prevents their escape via Koluszki and Strykow. The wall of the corridor has moved westward. and along it and between Brezin and Glovno the Cossacks are attacking the German flank. Despite the enemy’s high valour and tactical skill, their efforts in this region are destined to ho futile. Entire battalions half-frozen and starving, separated from units in the Lodz district, willingly surrendered. GERMANS BREAK THROUGH BUT STILL IMPERILLED. LONDON, November 30. The Daily Mail’s Petrograd correspondent reports that the surrounded Germans, except the captured divisions, broke through a side of the Russian trap, hut are still imperilled. GERMANS LOSE 100,000 IN TEN DAYS. LONDON. November 30. The Daily News’ Petrograd correspondent says that the Germans killed in the ton days’ battle between Boura and Lodz are estimated at one hundred thousand. TO STEM RUSSIAN ADVANCE. FOUR ARMY. CORPS SENT EAST. AMSTERDAM, November 30. : Router’s Paris correspondent says it is estimated that the Germans have withdrawn four army corps from Belgium and sent them towards Poland... They have been replaced by old and young volunteers and Landsturm. 58,000 AUSTRIANS CAPTURED. PETROGrIdT November 30. It is estimated that the Austrians taken prisoners since the 9th inst. in tlie Raba and Cracow district number 58,000.

THE CLAWS OF THE BRITISH LION.

M. PICHON DENOUNCES THE ORDER OF THE KAISER. TITLE OF HONOUR. LITTLE ARMY THAT FORESHADOWS THE LAST DAYS OP THE EMPIRE. Writing in the Petit Journal, M. Stephen Pichon, the ex-Foreign Minister of France, says;— “The words of the German Emperor’s order of the, day to his troops that their first objective should be to exterminate those treacherous English, and to walk over General French’s contemptible little army, is the finest homage which the Emperor could pay Great Britain and her,troops, as it proves both the anger felt by the instigator of tho war towards our admirable Ally, and his chagrin at being unable to overcome her.

“It is one more title of honour for tho British Government and the British people. What William calls Britain’s treachery is that great Empire’s fidelity to her pledged word, to her oath to guarantee Belgian neutrality, to European independence and liberty, and to those principles of civilisation which arc the honour of modern peoples.

“What he describes as French’s ‘contemptible little Army’ are several hundred thousand men whoso valour and fearlessness aro the admiration of the world, and who aro placed under tho command of one of the most illustrious military chiefs of our times. “In whoso name does tho Gorman Emperor attempt—without success, however—to insult these heroic upholders of a justice to which they arc sacrificing their lives? “In the name of an army of housebreakers, hangmen, executioners, and ‘firebugs’ dishonoured for all time by their crimes in the name of the Imperial Princes who found nothing more worthy 'f their race to do than to loot chateaux, as tho Crown Prince did at Bayo, in the name of generals who raised pillage to a law of war like those who cleared out the hotels at Compiegue. “If these people had known how to carry out the orders of their supreme chief, and had been able to destroy the enemy, as it was their duty to do, well and good, but they exterminated nothing at all, and the Emperor lias achieved nothing by his ragings and his anger. His insults have no effect, and bo is like Bismarck, with the end of bis life haunted by the nightmare of the “coalitions which make him foresee the last days of his Emnire,

“He is specially furious with Great Britain, because he feels in his shoulders the claws of the, British lion. He vainly socks to Into Great Britain. Slio holds him, and will pot let him go.”