OBSTACLE TO WINTER CAMPAIGN

THE EMPTY TRUMPH AT WARSAW

THE general conclusion out here yesterday probably coincided with the views held by the majority of those closely following recent events in the east, and it is not surprising to find this morning that the various military correspondents are, broadly speaking, in agreement.

As the “Times” expert says “the Grand Duke in his retirement, elected to save his armies and lose his fortresses. He has done well... The Russians have merely used the works of the fortresses as rearguard positions and have withdrawn everything which could be of service to the enemy. It is a barren triumph for the enemy and it is clear that the Russians have retired voluntarily and in perfect order.”

When Major Moraht, the military correspondent of the “Berliner Tageblatt,” was seeking to mollify the German public in regard to the delay in the occupation of Warsaw, he wrote, “The chief thing with us, as it is always the chief thing in military strategy, is the destruction of the enemy’s fighting power. Why should we give that up for Warsaw? What we are aiming at is the defeat of the Russians in great style, to put them out of the fight.”

That is just what they have failed to do, and that is why some of the German newspapers (not all, of course), are displaying unaccustomed modesty, one might almost say unaccustomed honesty, in their references to Warsaw.

The “Cologne Gazette” makes the surprising admission that “high enough the political and military impression must be” which will be produced by the entry of the victorious German troops into the Polish capital, “the possession of Warsaw had lost in purely military importance.” The “Kreuz Zeitung” makes the further admission that “Russia’s moral power of resistance is still unbroken.”

Other German newspapers contain bombastic articles more in keeping with the German character as revealed to us in these later days.

“Warsaw, An Empty Shell” is the heading given today to the message of the Petrograd correspondent of the “Morning Post,” and the writer declares that the city was leisurely and thoroughly evacuated of everything valuable particular care having been taken that nothing made of copper or brass should fall into German hand.

“The church bells have been sent to Moscow. The factory machinery has been removed and set to work elsewhere, far away in the interior. Even in the cases in which destruction by explosion had been determined on, care was taken first to remove all copper and brass parts. The railway stores and the engineering and fitting shops have been removed in corpore into the interior.

“In short, the Germans having cracked the Russian nut at Warsaw find the kernel missing.”

The capture of Warsaw and Ivangorod, he says, has not altered the strategic situation, for the Germans are still faced with the same problem set them by the Russians at the outset, three months ago, of this latest phase of the Great War.

“The Russian armies getting away betimes retain their full freedom of movement while opposing to the German invasion the same problem as on the Vistula, but another hundred miles deeper into the vast spaces of all the Russias.”