Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-12-02
RUSSIAN GENERAL
STILL SILENT ON
ISSUE IN POLAND
Berlin Claims Cannot Be Recon-
ciIed With These Coming
From Petrograd, Len
den and Paris.
LITTLE CHANGE i'm FRANCE
Operations of Turkish Forces
and Developments Among
Religious Fanatics Hold
Attention.
LITTLE CHANGE in FRANCE

London. Nov. 2s.-While the beliea
grows hourly that the Russians in
northern Poland have won the great
est battle of the war, actual details OF
operations in this locality still are
withheld. and the whole incident is
beginning to take on the aspects Of a
mystery.
From Petrograd comes a report hat
the patience of the Russian people
awaiting official confirmation of III
reported victory is approaching the
breaking point, and the same thing
may be said Of the public here. Ger
man reports. without entering into any
such details as dates. describes sue
cessful operations in the region of this
great battle, but admit that the Ger
man army has not succeeded in bring
ing the struggle to a close.
Opposed to the German claim are the
unofficial statements from P%etrograd,
Paris and London. that Germany has
been defeated decisively and Earl
kltchener'S announcement in parlia-
ment that Germany has suffered the
greatest reversal of the war. For
nearly a week these claims have been
made with the utmost confidence. Yet
h Russian war office withholds any
word of decisive developments.
The situation i'm Russia Poland. the
present object of such great concern
to all is discussed in the German tate
lllSIIC III Olit SIiOIt sentence. III Is mere.
ly said that there We're no decisive en-
gagements in the east yesterday.
What Critics Say.
1t is evident that the comparative
failure of the Austro-German opera
tons along the Czenstochowa front
gave the Russians opportunity to en-
velop General Won Hindenburg, after
thrown d wedge into his antagonists
center. The Russians, to the south,
safe on their own front, were able to
strike northward, thus breaking the
enemy who had passed east beyond
their right flank.
Military critics at Petrograd profess
to be astonished at the German as
sault on LODI, maintaining that such
a movement made the defeat of the in
vaders inevitable. The critics declare
that unless the German advance to-
ward kutno and LODI was part of a
larger movement, the operation was
too hazardous to be credible. A third
Germany army in the vicinity of Vie
lun has initiated N advance which is
believed in London to have started too
late to be of any use.
Sporadic Fighting in West.
The campaign III France and Bel
| GUM. commonly regarded as the main
conflict OF the European wa", seemed
today to ave entered, at least temper
arily upon a new phase. For the time
being Germany has ~relinquished the Of
fensive. which she held so relentless
ly during the earlier weeks OF the war.
May Be Adopting Defensive.
Official statements fron Berlin and
Paris, showed that the Fl ting, which
has been diminishing ste iiy in sever
ity for the last two weeAa AS now flat
tened out to a mere SERIES of detached
skirmishes, involving only small num-
bers of men, 1t remained to be seen
whether his state of affairs was the
prelude to another German onslaught,
as LondOn has been predicting or
whether it meant that Germany had
adopted new tactics, which wouid
thrust upon the allies the burden of tho
attack in an effort to drive out the in
vaders.
The French statement said that in tho
Argonne where some of the most spirit
ed fighting has been in progress recent
ly there We're only small engagements
yesterday. Ground was taken by the
Germans and retaken by thea allies, but
the insignificant scale of these oper-
atoms. measured by the magnitude of
the war as a whole is shown by The
statement that fighting involved nc
more thar one battalion. and the dis
puted ground extended over no more
than 225 yards.
There is a corresponding conflict
concerning the campaign in Servia.
The Austrian war office asserts that
the advance into Servia is being
pushed forward successfully and that
the Serbs were beaten in the engage
ments. An official statement issued at
Nish, however, contains no reference
to such occurrences, merely saying that
the battle continues along the main
front near the kolubara river.
Watching tho MosIems.
A holy war. which might seriously
affect the issue, should it bring to arms
the millions Of Moslems of the eastern
i countries, has beer formally pro-
claimed, as decided upon 10 days ago
The proclamation signed by the sultan
of Turkey, calls on Moslems the world
over to join in the war against Great
Britain. France and Russia.
Fears of friction between European
powers and countries Of South Amer.
lea over alleged violations of neutral.
ity in southern waters, has led the
principal South American nations t.
ask the cooperation of this country
in negotiations with the nations al
war. looking toward exclusion Of bel.
ligerent warships from the waters O.
the two Americas.
British Meet Turks.
Thirty miles to the east Of the Sue.
canal British forces are in touch with
Turkish invaders. but there is no sigr
of a general action in this vicinity anc
it is expected that the invasion o,
Egypt probably will be postponed fol
the reason that the Turks are reported
to be hard pressed in Armenia anl
around the Persian gulf.