Evening star., 1915-01-22
AUSTRIANS PREPARE
DESPERATE RESISTANCE
Hand-to-Hand Fighting Is Going on
in Alsace.
FRENCH MEET REvERsEs
Teutons Retake Trenches-Fierce
Battle Reported Between Nieu-
port and Ostend- Floods
Hinder Operations.

LONDON, January 22.-News
dispatches referring to the situa~
ton in Poland set forth that
north of the Nistula, in the vicin-
ity Of Lipno, Russian advance
guards are within twenty miles
of the German frontier. while to
the northeast the Germans have
evacuated Skempe, which is about
twenty-five miles from the Prus-
sian border and due southeast of
Thorn. If the Russians follow up
their success at Skempe and con-
tinue their forward movement it
will give them an unbroken front,
in the opinion Of British OBJ
servers, dangerously near Ger
man territory.
Western Allies Watching.
The western allies are watching this
region just now with great interest.
and dispatches from Petrograd say
that the Russians are piuning high
hopes on this offensive thrust near the
German line. Elsewhere they are plan
ming merely to hold their own. barring,
of course, the advance through Tran
Sylvania.
The Austrians, however. appear not
| to have been crushed by their reverses
in Bukowina. for the Russians them
selves refer to the attempted Austrian
offensive to check the Russian advance.
The Austrians appear at last to have
realized the Importance of the Russian
advance through Bukowina. for they
have assembled a large independent
army under Field Marshal Loedman.
which has occupied the passes and
posted heavy artillery, TINS to some
extent checking the rapid advance Of
the Russians. Loedman is prepared to
make a desperate resistance.
Hungarians Are Moving.
Strong forces of Hungarian troops
are reported to be proceeding to the
Bukowina frontier by way of Bistritz
to help arrest the Russian invasion.
In the western arena of the war the
battle at scissors still ranks the
only great conflict during many weeks
past There has been fighting at many
yards there is all either side had
gained If the German plan is re-
newed general offensive or a serious
concentrated attack at some strategic
point it has not yet materialized.
Determined infantry fighting, with
ferocious hand-to- hand encounters. is
going on today in Alsace, but that the
situation at scissors shows no change.
Artillery exchanges. in which the
French were successful, occurred be-
tween Ypres and the Disc. near Berry
au-Bac and in the Vosges. while in the
forest of Apremont the German art1l-
Reverses for French.
Reverses for French arms are admitted
between the Meuse and Moselle, to the
southeast of St. Mhiel. where the heavy
German bombardment has made it impos-
sible for the French to retain the foes
trenches recently occupied. In "a fierce
encounter northwest of ont-a-Mousson.
in the forest of lie Pretre. the Teutons
captured a portion Of the trenches taken
from them in the battle of January 20.
Defeat for the allies in two important
engagements is announced in an official
statement given out today by the Ger
man war office. A French attack near
Pont-a-M -Mousson, where the allies are at
tempting to cut the German conmunica-
tions with MertZ, is said to have been re-
pulsed. with heavy losses for the at
tackers. In Alsace the French were
driven out of the heights near Sennheim.
The Germans were compelled to evacuate
a trench near Berry-au- -Bac. but gained
some ground in the Verdun region.
Between Nieuport and Dstend a hard
battle has been uninterruptedly rag
ing for three days despite rain. flooded
trenches and almost impossible roads.
says the Sluis. Holland, correspondent
of the Amsterdam Telegraaf. The cor
respondent reports large numbers OF
German wounded passing Sluis.
Floods in the region of Altkirch and
in the Sund2au OF southern country
of Alsace generally have completely
stopped German military operations.
SAWS / dispatch to the newspaper
Suisse. The rivers Ill and Larg have
overt,oAed from their beds and the mar
row valleys are entirely submerged.
At Altkirch the German headquarters
installed in business building We're
obliged to move to private houses on
the heights.
The French troops near Thanh, the
dispatch says. are in good position
well out of reach of the floods. They
shelled the Germans vigorously all day
Thursday.
Shell Fire More Deadly.
Exceptionally heavy artillery firing Is
going on in the region of Cernay and
Thann. The German wounded state.
according to reports that come over
the border, that the frozen ground
makes shell fire much more deadly. as
surface, explode with increased vio-
lence. scattering frozen clods of earth
which cause ugly wounds.
Prince Eitel Friedrich. the second son
of Emperor William. has arrived at
Mulhausen with a numerous suite and
has taken up his abode in the mag
nificent villa of the Koechlin family.
who fed to America at the beginning
Of the war.
Turks Claim Success.
The Turks claim to have arrested the
Russian advance in the Caucasus. but
they give no details The British press
continues to assert that the proposed