Arizona republican., 1915-10-21
Czar's Officials Regard the Situation on Eastern Bat tie Front as Being Most Serious and May With draw from Positions
ITALIANS WILL
 INVADE AUSTRIA
Will Begin Offensive on Tvrol Border as First Move in Going to the Assistance of the Serbian Troops
ASSOCIATED PRESS DrspATcH1

LONDON oct 2O.-Battles south or Riga where the Germans made pro gress in new thrust at the Baltic province port, in Volhynia and Gallcia' where the Russians gained important Victories, are competing in interest with the operations in the Balkans. The Germans have concentrated large forces and artillery south of Riga and as a result stubborn battle has been in progress for several days Field Marshall Von Hindenburg, who IS Tn command, reported two days ago that his forces had reached DVina, the Wa terWay holding him up for the tune De- ing The Russians consider the sltua- tiOn more serious than it has been Tor a long time and talk of the evacuation of Riga by military authorities. The position is the reverse at the other end of the eastern front, where General Ivanoff has been striking hard at the Tepton forces at Middle Styr, and all along the fringe of Galicia that is still in Russian hands. He has driven his opponents back several places. It is reported that the Austrians have evac- uated Czernowitz. The Teutons and i BuIgarians are advancing on the Ser | bian fronts but not with the speed an- 1 ticipated.
 The Teutons have apparently spread | their armies along a wider front. Der 1 lin reports that they are advancing on Shabats, which is a long distance west of Belgrade. Importance is attached to the arrival at Odessa of a military mission enroute from Rumania to 1 Paris it's object being unknown. It is 1 thought that the mission would hardly | he undertaken unless Rumania con- i templated action on the side of the l allies. The Germans are employing 1 Zeppelins against the British and Rus sian submarines in the Baltic.
 Czernowitz report finds some confir-
 r2ation in an Odessa dispatch declaring ! the Russians have abandoned their l contemplated evacuation of the north
 ern district of Bessarabia. The Bull
 garians claim to have captured Sultan 1 Tepe, southwest of Egri> Palanka and
 are advancing toward Kumanovo. They l took two thousand prisoners. Both | places are east of Uskub.
 There is still some doubt as to whether they cut the railway near 1 Vranya. The Serbian government is
 denying the report. Other accounts say the Bulgarians reached the city, |
 tha+ the Germans in the first place aim at the Serbian grain country of which l POZarevac, already reached, is the cen i ter. The Bulgarians are making across country from Macedonia. where they
 find a friendly population.
 | The Angl0-French forces have been | in action on the Graeco- Bulgarian from
 tier Seemingly the battle was not inn 1 portant. No official report has been | issued with regard to it. The Germans, | according to British and French state
 ments, have attempted an offensive 1 near Hulluch and Rheims. There they l suffered a severe reverse. On the
 other hand, the Germans claim success near Prunay, in the Champagne dis 1 trict. Mining operation occupies the 1 attention of the Anglo French Turks at l Gallipoli. From Mesopotamia it is l unofficially reported the British are | within a few miles of Bagdad
 The Serbian legation stated that
 news received tonight showed that the
 Serbian were still successfully resisting i the invaders on both fronts and that 1 despite the tremendous attacks at the 1 advance of the AustrO- Germans and Bulgarians is very slight. It is denied
 that the Bulgarians occupied Vrania 1 or had the railway cut, although it was
 admitted that the Bulgarians occupied
 a point dominating the railway.
 The Daily Telegraph announces that
 Continued on Page Four)