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Show CRITICS THINK TEUTONS HAVE HALTED DRIVE I Observers Say Forces Have Either Lost Strength or Are Ready to Dig In. LONDON, Sept. 5, 0:50 p. m. Either the driving power of the Ajistro-Oer-inan offensive against Huia if- nearly exhausted, or the (ierman generals ha.ve derided that their armies have penetrated pene-trated the Ruosian emperor's dominions a far as is oonsiderftd nafo and are pre paring tn dig themaelvea tn for the winter. This is the opinion expressed hy military writers here. Certainly very little progoeHS is now-being now-being made, and at many points the liermans and Austrians are contenting themHelves with repnlsing the nountor-i nountor-i attarks of the Russians. Prom the Gulf of Riga to Grodno, Field Marshal von Hindennurg's armies am at a standstill, having apparently made nn attempt to cross the lvina after carrying the bridgeheads at Lennowtada and Fried-ri:hstadt. Fried-ri:hstadt. Strong Russ Forces. To the north, southwest and south of Vilna, the frill of which has been pre-dieted pre-dieted for some daVB, the Germans are fared by very strong Russian forces, who, by their defensive, make it dangerous dan-gerous for the Germanja to push their w:iy westward, north or Bouth otf them. 'fhe Germans, on the other hand, are mussed between Grodno and Kohrin on the BreBt-Pinsk rail-way, but their immediate object is not obvious, unless they are looking for a good defensive ' position on which to hokl the .Russians j throughout the winter. Further south the Russians are offering of-fering fresh resistance, as they are firm) v established in a fortified area of w'hirh Rovno and DuJmo are centers; cen-ters; while in Galioia they still hold the . line of the Soreth river. With the rainy season a few weeks off, the opposing armies, especially in tut' marshy region ot the center, cannot i hope to carry on the operations much longer, and aome reports state that the t.ennnns and Austrians are already moving troops to the Serbiau, Rumanian Ruman-ian and western fronts. I Artillery Active. In the western zone the heavy ar-i ar-i (alter v of the allies is still bombarding 1 the German lines, doing all the damage ppj ible and trying to break the morale i i of the (ierman t roops, but thus fax there is no indication of a general offensive. of-fensive. Paris reports that the Turks have delivered de-livered an unsuccessful night attack against the British positions near the Anv.ac region, but beyond that no news ! has been received of the operations in the near east. There has been a renewal of tbe re- j ports from Athens of dissensions between be-tween the Turks and Germans at Constantinople, Con-stantinople, and of depression among j the Turks as the result of heavy losses in Ciallipoli. No evidence of this, how-ever, how-ever, is to be found among the Turkish troops, who ore reported to be fighting j -with all their cid stubbornness. Arthur .T. Balfour, first- lord of t.ha British admiralty, in a letter to the press, gives official recognition to the belief here that the German promises to America not to sink any more passen-irer passen-irer steamers without- -warning- were Drought about by the realization that thn submarine warfare against mer-chant-men had proved a failure. He again intimates that many German submarines sub-marines have been accounted for, and adds that British mercantile tonnage is now greater than before the war, despite de-spite the damage done by the submarines. |