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Show lJlJP oo jjjjl CAN ST. PETERSBURG i BE TAKEN? Ill Evidently the Germans plan to ap- i P tne finlahlngstrokes to the shat- III Ured Ru8B,an arniy- While good 1U weather prevails, thpy ar6 driving I1 deep in to tho heart of the-Czar's- ItH emPlre and thpy nro credited with SlH atalns tp capture Petrograd I HI , Tb0 Hk!ne of tQo RuoBiak capital mm Is not an ImpoBslbility. Advancing II a I ,rte at fIve m,leB day. Gen- II """I. Vtt Hwburg-B command III could reach its destination in 60 days 98 But fIv? m,Ies a day is a very big N task Tor any army, If there is any resisting power on the part of the enemy. ., Evidence accumulates tending to prove that the Russian forces are disorganized dis-organized and in a measure demoralized. demor-alized. Their offonsive power long since has disappeared and even their defensive strength Is vanishing. At no point are they able to keep back the victorious Germans and Austrian, Aus-trian, and, unless an unexpected Improvement Im-provement is brought about, they are in extreme danger of being rendered Impotent. The Germans have two avenues open to them, if they seek to strike at Petrograd. They can move from the Dvina river directly northeast along the main railroad connecting Petrograd with Warsaw, or they can gain control of tho Gulf of Riga and land troops at Pernau which is loss than 75 miles from Reval on the Gulf of Finland. This movement might be accompanied by a naval battle. Once the Baltic was cleared of Russian warships, an army could be landed very close to the Russian capital. Gaining possession ol reirosruu would not in itself be a great military mili-tary advantage, but the effect on tho Russians might be demoralizing. The Germans believe in the psychology of the war. They know the moral can equal the armed influence of a nation, na-tion, and once a people are sufficiently sufficient-ly depressed by adverse news, they can be made to yield, though they have the military elements of resistance resist-ance which might offer, endless trouble trou-ble to a foe. The Kaiser, at the beginning be-ginning of the war, sought to break down the spirits of the French by moving on Paris. He knew Paris had no great strategic value In the conquest con-quest of France, but he aimed to crush the morale of the French troops by inflicting a humiliation. Failing in the wept, Emperor William now turns to Petrograd. nn |