New-York tribune., 1920-07-21
Polish Farmers
Use Scytlles to
Fight Russians
Battalion of Peas SAINTS
Armed Only With Sharp
ened Tools March to
y Hold Off Invading Slavs
Reds Repulsed on Styr
CroAno Changes Hands
Many Times; Defenders
Outnumbered Five to One

WARSAW, July 20 (By The Asso-
ciated Press) s).-Peasant scythemen of
Modlin, reviving the traditions of the
scythemen of Kosciusko, who fought
the Russians in 1894, marched through
Warsaw Monday en- route to Polands
eastern frontier to take stand against
a possible invasion by the Bolsheviki.
Modlin is the old name for Novo-
georgievsk, strong fortress of Rus
sian Poland, and is still so called by
the Poles.
There was whole battalion of the
scythemen, dressed in native costume,
each man armed with 4 sharpened
scythe which glstened in the sun as
the peasants marched through the
streets of the capital. Modlin fortress
was built by Napoleon l. 1t has been
sieged by the Germans in 1915. The
peasants were all from the battle
SCARED districts of Modlir.
At intervals throughout Monday 75s
and other guns of modern warfare
rumbled over Warsaw's cobblestones.
all bound in the same drection-to
the east Lancers, bedecked with
flowers. were cheered as they passed
along the streets. Soldiers and scythe-
men alike appeared as if they had
never heard reports that an armistice
may soon come.
Every Town Sends Men
Thus Poland's war plans went for
ward over all of Poland, each town
and city organizing to take up the
fight in the east.
Ill H.
the Bolshcvki along the line of the
River Styr, in Volhynia, began Monday
and has been repulsed by the heroic
work of seven Polish divisions, accord
ing to an official statement from
army headquarters to-day.
The fighting on the southern front
continues to be chiefly battle of
aviators and Polish lancers against
Budenny's cavalry. Rovno has changed
hands time and again. The Bolshevik
infantry attacked repeatedly in an eff
fort to force crossing of the Ikwa
River. but all these attacks were re-
pulsed
The Poles are outnumbered five to
one on the southern front, according
to the American aviators, and they
are also handicapped by the use of
five different styles of rifles, resulting
in ammunition delays
Aviators Fight Cavalry
The Bolsheviki are assembling re-
Inducements to follow up Budenny's
cavalry raids, which usually are made
by groups of five to six hundred men.
1t is chiefly against these that the
members of the Kosciusko Aerial
Squadron, most of them Americans,
have been operating.
On the northern front the Bolshe-
wiki are in sight of Poland proper.
North of Grodno and just east of the
Niemen River the Bolsheviki have as
sembled masses of troops and are at
tacking along the Wilma railroad in
their drive on Grodno.
Activity is reported along the entire
front and the Bolsheviki have been
repulsed in several places. 1t is esti-
mated the Bosheviki are continuing
an average daily advance of from nine
to twelve miles in some places. At
scattered points there have BEEN con-
stant infantry clashes, while at other
points the Poles are withdrawing in
the face of ovcrwhe Inning numbers of
the enemy
Withdraw East of Grodno
The communique Monday night an
nounced that in the region of Novo-
grodsk, about seventy-fve miles east
of Grodno, the Poles are withdrawing
westward with little fighting. East of
Baranovitchi, along the river Shara,
where the Poles are using the Russo
German defensive line, the Bolsheviki
repeatedly launched infantry attacks
in an endeavcr to break the resistance
of the Poles, but all the attacks were
repulsed.
LONDON, July 2O.-The decisive de-
feat of Polish division in the region
of Ida. where the Bolsheviki are driv-
ing toward Grodno, is reported in
Mondays official statement from Mos
COW, received here to-day.