The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-12-15
Austrian Government Adj
mits Defeat of the Aus
TRAN Army i'm Servia
GERMANS CLAIM GAIN
IN NORTHERN POLAND
More Than 500 Towns Ruined or De-
stroyed in the Ebb and Flow of War
Tide-Austrians Occupy Dukla and
Take 5000 Prisoners.

LONDON, Dee. 15.-The Servians,
after a fierce battle, have reoceupied
Belgrade, according to a Nish despatch
to Reuters Telegram company.
The most striking feature of vester-
day S official news is the candid adj
mission by. the Austrian government of
the defeat of the Austrian army in
Servia and apparently of the abandon
ment of its third attempt at invasion
of the territory of it's small Slav
neighbor, which claimed to have driven
part of the Austrian army back across
the Drina river after q succession of
swift victories.
While attributing the failure to the
enemy s superior force, as all govern
ment bulletins explain failures. the
Austrian war office announces plainly
an extended retirement and many loss
es.
" New decisions and measures will
consequently be taken to repel the
enemy" says the Austrian statement
Apparently that means that the Aus
trian Army directed against Servia
will assume a defensive line.
The progress of the war in North
erh Hungary is less definite. Sunday 5
| German wireless report with candor
equal to that of the Austrian bulletin.
spoke of the severe resistance =
which the German and Austrian arms
are encountering in South Poland and
IN Galicia, and added that it was evil
! dent that the Austrian force in the
| Carpathians was not numerically strong
enough to clear the Russians out of
! Hungarian territory. But the Austri-
ans affirm that they are driving down
the northern slopes of the Carpathians
the Russian invaders, who were last
week in occupation of several towns
south of that mountain range
In late report last night the Aus
TRANS announced that they had reoccu-
pied the important point of Dukla to
the north of the Carpathians and at
the head, of the pass of that name on q
line south of Przemysl and Cracow, but
nearer to the former. with the capture
| of 5000 prisoners.
The main issue in the eastern theatre
of the war-whether the German and
! Austrian armies, by the German opera
tions in Northern and Central POLAND
and the Austrian advance across the
ECarpathians. win shake the Russian
grip from the PrzemysI and Cracow
The Germans claim a distinct gain il
their position in Northern Poland, al
though they are not believed to be a.
near to Warsaw as the reports las
week indicated. On the other hanC
the Russians announce q strategic re
alignment of their forces in that feel,
which strengthens their position.
Poland is fast becoming another Bel
: GUM in point of suffering, while tn
opposing armies drive each other bael
and forth, occupying and reoceupyinI
cities and villages and infiicting upo1
the inhabitants bombardmentS simila
to those that have been inflicted upol
the people of Belgium and Northern
France.
More than five hundred Polish town
have been ruined, according to yariou
! accounts from the correspondents. Bot
: armies accuse the other of looting an
. cruelty. The flight of the civilian
! from LODI was one of the most tragi
-, episodes of the war, while one CORE,
pondent pictures the fate of KaEsz a
Il repetition of Louvain, with tn
4 slaughter of 400 civilians and tn
II sacking of the city. a.
II A distressing feature of the fghtin
II in Poland is the blood kindred pitte
II against each other. There are sewers
III hundred thousand Poles in the Russia
L ranks and several hundred thousan
II more in the ranks of the Germans an
II Austrians.