The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1914-11-13

70 d report received mere from RUSSIAN
headquarters.
The general proffered this word of cheer
for the purpose Of helping his officers and
soldiers to stand fast during the discom-
forts and sufferings Of war.
TATlLL the Brandenburg gate be
NV stripped again of its crown
ing glory? The eagles Of
France tore that quadriga
of Victory from its resting place in the
days Of Napoleon. and the Prussians
restored it when they came from Paris
in 1871. Now the Russian bear men
aces it from the east. and we'll may
we ask, What are the German defenses
against this peril?
Berlin, unlike Paris. is in no sense
a fortified city in the restricted sense
of thai term. True, the kaiser has i'm
mediately about him there ever in time
OF peace many thousands of the best Of
his troops, but $4,000 soldiers do not
constitute Notifications although they
may go a long way toward helping in
the defense. AS drives through
the wooded outskirts Of the Prussian
capital now and her can be seen the
slope of turf covered breastworks that
may and may not mark the presence of
bidder artillery. At best these field
Notifications, for that is in substance
what they are, are but modest units
for the support of infantry and are not
expected to undergo the stresses of a
siege. This is all quite unlike those
formidable belts of detached forts that
. make Paris the military marvel it is.
Planned to Keep Foe Far Away.
Why, then, have the Germans failed
to guard the immediate e~nvirons Of
their capital? Is it possible that the
kaiser's wonderful general staff has
neglected this vital point? No, surely
not, but the Prussians have planned to
keep their foes so far away that Ber-
lin itself should not need the same
character OF permanent protection with
which the French have wisely seen fit
to surround their capital. In brief,
the defenses Of Berlin begin far off on
the frontier, and the nearest of them
are still many miles away, if we con-
slider as such the outlying fortified
cities.
The point of most interest lies to the
east of the German capital city and
concerns alone the menace Of Russia.
What on that side of the empire have
the German s~trategists placed in the
way of substantial defensive obstacles
to the cars forces?
EirSt Sfartipr with tho ooctov,,,o,+
boundary of East Prussia, we know
that the German general staff has
counted upon Il mobile defense in the
form Of concentrations Of troops at
certain strategic points. The purpose
Of these army corps is not so much to
insure victory as 1t is to cost the enc
my dear in killed and wounded for
every mile Of his westward trespass.
With this work done, the design has
been that the troops should fall back
upon the two strongly fortified posi-
tons at Koenigsberg and Allenstein.
Protected Cities.
The plans. If these two cities fall.
call for a falling back of the field
troops toward Berlin's other line of
defense, the very formidable fortified
positions ut Danzig, Virschau. Marien-
werder, Graudenz and Thorn that line
the river Vistula. The next strategic
position permanently fortified in Ger
many Is Posen. After Posen on the
Warthe river then comes Berlin's sec
ond line of permanent defenses on the
Oder, beginning at Custrin. including
ClOgau and Rreslau. Neisse might be