The Outlook 1915-08-11

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The Outlook AUGUST 11, 1915 Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York THE STORY OF THE WAR: RUSSIA AT BAY The success that goes with the third trial seems to be about to crown the third German effort at Warsaw as we go to press. As this is written, Cholm and Lublin, southeast. of the. Polish capital, have fallen, and’ the im- portant railway between these points—a section of the road that goes on to Warsaw— is in the hands of the Austro-Germans. Reports of the evacuation of the city have already reached us, and very likely Warsaw will be in Teutonic hands by the time this issue of The Outlook reaches our readers. The capture of Lublin and Cholm cut off the southern line of retreat of the Russian armies about Warsaw, and the ad- vance of the army of General von Biilow through Kovno Province threatens to cut the important Warsaw-Petrograd Railroad; but the Russians claim that Biilow has been stopped. Still, the capture by the Germans of Mitau, twenty-eight miles southwest of Riga, shows that they have strength to spare away from Warsaw. On the other hand, it is rather surprising that the Polish metropolis has held out as long as it has. Every day that saw it still in the Czar’s possession seemed to lessen the probability of its being wrested from him, for stubbornness is the chief asset of the Russian soldier, and unless he is dislodged from his position at one fell swoop it is hard to budge him. The tenacity of the Russians at bay before Warsaw has surprised many military critics, as it has disheartened the Germans. Nearly every recent official German report has boasted cf the number of prisoners taken, the grand total of Russians cap- tured during the first year of war being placed at the seemingly exaggerated total of 3,035,200. But, on the other hand, all the evidence indicates that during the Galician and Polish offensives that have carried the Austro-Germans from the Carpathians to beyond Lemberg and up to Warsaw, in killed and wounded the Teutons have suffered more than the Slavs, just as one hundred years ago the French suffered more than the Russians falling back beyond Moscow. Even the capture of Warsaw will be a doubtful recompense to the Teutons for their losses unless at the same time they capture or crush the Russian armies. ITALY AGGRESSIVE With the exception of the Austro-German- Russian front the area in which Austrians and Italians are fighting each other has been the scene of more activity recently than any other front in the war. It is difficult to learn what the results have been in this arena, how- ever, the Austrian and Italian reports con- tradicting each other from alpha to omega. The Italians claim that they have punctured the second line of Austrian defense on the Carso Plateau, and that on the Isonzo front the Austrians are preparing to evacuate their first lines of defense. General Cadorna’s latest communiqué shows that his utmost efforts are bent on bringing about the col- lapse of the eastern Austrian line from the Carnic Alps to the Adriatic, and that to secure this result he is hammering at three fortified centers—Tarvis, Tolmino, and Go- rizia. The capture of Gorizia might mean the abandonment of the entire Isonzo front by Austria, leaving only the Fiume-Agram line of defense against a possible Italian invasion of the Hungarian plain. A move by Italy against this vital interior region would be bound to influence Bulgaria, who, according to an interview recently published in “Az Est,” a Hungarian newspaper, is frankly holding her services in the war open to the highest bidder. PROMISES TO THE POLES Poland has been the battlefield of contend- ing armies through every month of the year, and has possibly suffered more from the war than any other territory where there has been fighting, not excepting Belgium or even Servia. It now seems, however, that the 827