The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-13
Czar's Troops Abandon Siege of Przemysl and Draw Up New Line Against Foes
BRITISH PRESS IS
 OPTIMISTIC OVER
 ANTWERP'S FALL
Claimed Allied Forces Set Free by Capture of the
 Fortress Overbalances the 4 Victory for Germans

Petrograd, October l2.-The follow ling official statement was issued to- Knight by the chief of the general |jstaff:
 . "On October II fighting began on the left. bank of the Vistula in the di- rection of Ivangorod and Warsaw.
 "There is no change at other points ! on our front.
 "Qetachments of Russian cavalry passed through the defiles in |tke Carpathiap mountains, have |emerged into the plains of Hungary. London, October 12.-(9:25 p. m.) | The finger of the censor having twisted the torniquet on all sources of news from Belgium, just now perhaps the most potentially important scene of the fighting, the British people |lwere forced to content themselves to- 3dsV with the official communications |ffom Paris and even a close analysis of this showed no marked change i'll the situation favoring either side. |5 From the east came tidings of a de- 5cided reversal in form, the dispatches |Sboth from Vienna and Petrograd indicat- ing that the Austrian army at Przemysl so |soften reported surrounded, hopelessy out lclassed and on the verge of surrender, 5had turned on the Russians with the aid of endorsements and forced them to re- |ftreat.
 |k The first news of this claim emanated during tho morning from the Austrian capital It was followed later in the day by what purports to be a Petrograd ad- rtission that the Russians had abandoned
 the siege of Przeinysl for strategical req lsons, with the object of drawing up a new line against the Austro-German army lin other points in Galicia.
 Russians Defeated Whatever may be the truth of the sit fuation, the Russians have been claiming an, unbroken series of victories in their st'eep through Galicia and the coincidence |aof today's dispatches, supplemented as they were substantiated by more circum-
 stantial facts from Vienna of vigoro- sous Austro-German offensive, seemed to |spresage important news.
 |H The British and Belgian troops who re-
 tired from Antwerp before the German |soccupation with the exception of those who are now informed on Dutch soil as a
 result of having had to cross the border, |. Mve been swallowed up as completely
 as if they had been buried under the ruined forts. For military reasons their positions and the area of hostilitics in Belgium must remain obscure, until the
 turn of events bring them sharply to the fore again, as was the case when, after |sthe fall of Anwerp, the British public alearned for the first time that the British
 forces had assisted the garrison. N Press Optimistic l. Optimistic, as always, the British press,
 besides contending that Antwerp is of no importance to Germany as a naval base finds solace in the argument that in the release of the allied troops there more + than counterbalances the troops which Germany will send from that ponit into [ France. Col. Frederic N. Maude retired
 army officer and author of several stand
 ard military books writing in today's Evening Standard says
 lf'This morning finds the Belgians with tContinued on Page Eighty