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Show ! OEiANSPUSH SI RUSSIANS BACK 1 1 Peirograd, .Tan IS. The following Statement from the general etatT of the Russian army in the Caucasus Wa issued tonight- "We continue to pursue the Turkish army which was beaten by us at Km ra-I rpan. A Btubborn battle took place at fenikiol, which lasted two days We de eated part of the thirty-second Turkish division, which retreated precipitately, pre-cipitately, suffering heavy losses In men killed and made prisoners and 1 leaving behind two machine guns and the baggage of the officers "In one single charge by a regiment of Siberian Cossacks ihe enemy lost 300 men. On the other fronts only un-Imnortant un-Imnortant engagements have taken place- UN GRANVILLE FORTESCCE. Warsaw, Jan. 18: A nice question con fronts the Germans now whether to attempt to maintain themselves In Poland or to retire to their own fron tier. If General von Hindenbergs army strives to hold the position it occupies at present during the rest .f the winter It will lose, at a minimum, 5 per cent of its effectiveness before be-fore spring. Part of this loss will be due to the Russian guns, but a large loriion will come through sickness and these sacrifices will bring no re-: suns. Every sign points to the fact that the wonderful German fightine machine ma-chine is btginning to crack During the last few weeks it has shown unmistakable un-mistakable signs of weakening at all joints of contact. It is still capable of heavy fighting, but I am of the opinion that it has passed the period of its highest power. Germans Hold Railways. T'nder these circumstances a great (Term an staff may decide upon withdrawal with-drawal to the boundaries. Such a movement would be a moral defeat, hut in view of their limited lines of communication the present battle area would be a safer exierlment than the attempted occupation of seven of the tn governments of Poland. The operations in East Prussia have a bearing on the situation here. A lieutenant colonel from that district declares that the Russian army of the north is making slow but sure gains in this almost impassable country. Two of the outer forts of Lotzen have fallen, but the enemy still holds most of ihe railways This leaves the north of Poland open to invasion, but should the Germans try to force their way to the south they will find a surprising number of Russian corps awaiting them Germans Take Kielce. The enem is making his main effort, ef-fort, not In the north, but in the south. His array is advancing along the Czenstochowo-V losczowa-Kielce line, .and has armed at the latter city. It never has been the plan of the Russians to hold this point, as tio position Is distinctly disadvantageous. disadvan-tageous. It has been considered a better scheme, should the enemy ihreaten seriously this southern district, dis-trict, to concentrate in the vicinity of Radio. The Russians are masters oT defensive defen-sive warfare, and in fighting of this character the problem of the supply department is simplified. Possibly the movement against Kielce will have the effect of postponing the promised Russian offensive In my opinion such a postponement might be advantageous The aviators report much movement in Lowiez which Is interpreted as an evacuation of the town If this Is so, the wave that i hts threatened Warsaw has been broken. It is not necessary to call atten-Ion atten-Ion to the obvious great imjiortance of the foregoing cable dispatch from such a highly skilled military observer ob-server a6 Captain F'ortescue. formerly former-ly the military aide at tbe White House. But it may be pointed out again that intelligent readers rou3t make allowances for cable dispatcher from Russia, which must necessarily be written in a form to suit the Russian Rus-sian arraj censor, otherwise no correspondent cor-respondent could get his dispatch ront over the telegraph lines all of -vhich are controlled by the Russian government. The intelligent reader must pick out the statements of fact, often of supreme importance, and ignore expressions ex-pressions of mere opinion, which are sometimes unimportant. The expression expres-sion of opinions sometimes serve as mere "carriers ' for the important facts in the telegram Tbe news in the foregoing dispatch is tbe most significant and important received from the Russian battlefield for two weeks, for it says: t First that the German army in Poland is in condition for heavy fighting. fight-ing. Second, that tbe Germans hold most of the railways In East Prussia and may advance at any time from North Poland toward Warsaw. Third, that the Germans have taken Kielce, an Important Russian base and the most important railroad Junction I northeast of Cracow, thus cutting the j former line of communication behind . the Russian army, which was threat I enlng German Silesia, and 1 Fourth, that the Germans' attak on Kielce probably will compel the Russian army now before Cracow to fall back to save its eommunirntlon? j'Thls will postpone indefinitely the hong threatened Invasion of German I Silesia by the Russian army, which las Hilaire Belloe has repeated! point ed out in his articles has been sin e the opening of the war the supreme objective of the Grand Duke Nicholas and all Russian strategists. Nearly 7,000,000 Men. Apparently the German atiack on I Warsaw failed on account of the I numbers of Russian troops. In thai I whole theatre of war from the Balth-I Balth-I sea to the Carpathian mountains, about 260 miles it is estimated there, are almost 4.00"i 000 Russian soldiers, 'counting the reserves, and the 1914 recruits It is estimated that there are 2,000,000 Germans, including reserves re-serves and about SOO.OOO Austrian. The Germans have twice got within with-in two days' march of Warsaw, but have been turned back b superior forces But in spite of their greatly superior forces the Russians have been able to make no headway against the German legions either in East Prussia on th- north or hefore Warsaw War-saw at the center, or upon I'raeow , at the south, the extreme right of the German line And now the movement against Kielce, which has apparently succeeded, succeed-ed, shows that the German strategy has been superior to the Russian Kielce is 15 miles east of the Nida river (the former Russian line I and Radom, the new Russian base, is 50 miles still further away from Cracow. 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