The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-12
LAST DITCH FIGHT
AGAINST SOVIET
now POLES PLAN
Council of Defense HurIS Defy
at Invading Reds.
Women and Boys Into Field to
Defend Warsaw.
SOVIET FEARS BIG REVERSE
Have Already Prepared De-
fenses Far to Their Rear,
Leon TrOtzky Personally Direct
ing BOlsheviki Assault.
Women and Boys Into Field to
Defend Warsaw.
SOVIET FEARS BIG REVERSE
Leon TrOtzky Personally Direct
ing BOlsheviki Assault.

Poland must defend itself to the end.
spurning any Bolshevik offer of a dis
honorable peace. the Polish council of
defense declared in a manifesto issued
today on the eve of the armistice con-
ference at Minsk
A great battle is in progress on the
Russo-Polish frontier upon which
hangs the fate of Warsaw. according
to information reaching the French
foreign office.
Russian cavalry has reached Praga.
a suburb of Warsaw. according to a
| wireless dispatch received from Berlin,
The Poles have l~unched a counter
of Pultusk, where the Russians have
| been striving to break the Polish de-
fensive lines Pultsk is 131 miles
north of Warsaw.
Polish Women to Fight.
Warsaw. Aug. 12.-Columns of
! armed women marched thru the
streets of Warsaw today announcing
they would fight the Russians to the
death. Some had only revolvers. 9th
ers carried rifles and sabers. Many
old men and youths have gone to the
defense being established near the city
where they are waiting to come to
grips with the invaders.
Leon Trotzky. the Red war minis
ter was reported to have arrived at
| Bialstok. ready to lead the Russian
III llS llnal IOT w aTSdW.
The fighting front draws nearer
Warsaw aud squads Of citizens wear
| ing their ordinary civilian clothing and
straw hats. but armed with rifles, are
| drilling in many parts OF the city.
As tho determined looking groups
pass thru the streets many boys in
knickerbockers. elderly men and we'll
to-do merchants are to be seen side by
side wit. the more usual type OF
! fighter in the ranks. Glass distinctions
are forgotten or brushed aside.
Newspaper accounts of the prepara-
tions declare that the spirit of the
ipeople is to defend Warsaw. repel the
invader and not to count the cost in
blood.
| The government while It will not
concede that "A date has been set for
the evacuation of the city, is gradual
documents. the packing of which be-
gan several days ago.
Move Out of Warsaw.
Hundreds of conveyances of all
descriptions loaded with barbed
wire and driven by boys and old
ish capital toward the battle front.
Mingled with them along the roads are
endless trains of supply wagons which
are guarded by elderly civilians armed
being relieved from other duties SO
that they may be in the fight for the
defense of Warsaw.
Warsaw newspapers publish in
/ terws with soldiers who declare
the Bolsheviki advancing upon this
city claim they have come to
exterminate the bourgeoisie, and
distribute the land among peas
ants. 1t is asserted they Impair
TALLY pillage mansions, farms and cot
tages and either forcibiy enlist the
men in the country or send them to
the rear. In the Bialystok district the
Bolsheviki took a number of hostages,
threatening to shoot them II food sup
plies are not delivered to the soviet
army within a specified time. It is
said the country behind the Bolsheviki
lines is suffering from famine, as all
grain has been requisitioned and sent
eastward by the Bolshevfki authori-
ties.
Bolsheviki prisoners say that the
high command OF the soviet armies
hastily preparing positions on the line
of Grodno. Slonim and Sarny, to which
it can withdraw in case Of defeat.
Reds Arc at Warsaw.
Johannesburg. East Prussia. Aug. II.
Reports that Mlawa. an important
city on the Warsaw-Danzig railway,
was taken by the Russian Bolshevildi
on Tuesday and that soviet cavalry was
within rifle shot of Warsaw. the fall OF
Whlcn was expected InurSuay OF r H.
day. were brought here today by a
correspondent of the KoenigsberR
Allegemeine Zeitung.
There have been no Official dis
patches indicating the soviet armies
have taken Mlawa, and most recent
advices from the fighting area have
shown the Bolsheviki are considered
fair game to kilr' by the common SOL
diers of the soviet army, It is declared
Ivy the correspondent. VINO says the
Bolsheviki have been told these
fighters are "bourgeo.sie who should
be exterTninated'