Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-21
POLES MAY TRAP
RETREAT|NC REDS
IN RING Of STEEL
Drive to Close Road of Es-
cape, But French Doubt
Ability.
$4,000 SOVIET PRISONERS
TAKEN SINCE THURSDAY
Warsaw Peace ENJOYS Demand Pol
ish Independence, Complete
and 1nviolable.
l's the Associated Press.

-! 'he Associated Press.
PARIS, August :I.-Six bolshcyik
ai'isions. consisting of from 10000
10 4o.e'o men. nre surrounded by
Polish forces between StedIc and
brest~LitOvsk, according to press
o>patches received here today. The
1oies had captured $4,000 soviet
prisoners UP to Thursday. 1t was
announced today.
PARIS, August 2I.-Liberation OF
roland is assured by the great vic
tory won during the last week over
the russian forces. according to the
opihioh generally entertained in
French military circles. but there is
DOUBT that it will yield more impor-
tant results. The bolshevik army
probably will escape destruction.
In following up this success It will
De logical for the Poles, after cross
ing the Bug river, to march north
ward toward Bialystok and Grodno,
thus making the retreat of the soviet
army impossible. Such an operation.
to succeed. would have to be expected
with great rapidity and with clocklike
regularity, it is declared, and the Pol
lsh organization, after it's long re-
treat md the hard fighting Of the
past week. can hardly be in posi-
ton to make such an effort. In ad-
dltion the counter offensive north of
Warsaw seems to be going slowly, as
the bolsheviki are still reported to be
at Wlocawek, ninety miles west of
Warsaw. This situation must ,be
cleared up. and it seems probable 1t
Will absorb certain part of the
Polish forces.
LONDON, August 21.-Keavy fight
ing continues north and northeast of
Warsaw, near Plonsk and Ciechanow
according to a bolshevik official state
ment issued yesterday in Moscow and
received here by wireless. Farther to
the northeast the soviet and Polish
armies are engaged near WySZkow
and Stanislavow, while in the. region
of Brest-Litovsk fighting is proceed
ing along the line of the western
branch Of the Bug river.
Near Lemberg. the statement says.
the bolsheviki are developing their
advance after occupying the village
of Gliniany. and during the fighting
have advanced to a line of villages
south and southeast of Lemberg. In
the Tarnapol region, eastern Galicia.
soviet forces have crossed the Stripa
river and have advanced in a west
erly direction. it is declared.
In the Crimean sector. the bolshe-
wiki nave occupied the village of
Vasilyevka after fierce fighting. dur
ing which they captured an armored
train and it's auXiliaries. Farther
east ti-bolshevik forces have
landed near the outskirts of Aktyrs-
troops have been dispatched to that
front and have engaged in an at
tempt to expel the landing forces.
The fighting there is said to continue.
Poles Deny Fault for War.
LONDON, August 21.-At the second
sitting of the Russo Polish peace con-
ference Thursday at Minsk the head
of the Polish delegation announced
Poland's peace conditions to be the
complete and inviolable independence
of the Polish republic with no inter-
ference in its internal affairs. accord
ing to a wireless dispatch received
here from Moscow today.
The Polish delegate said Poland did
not declare waD He asserted the
Polish troops had occupied territory
once belonging to Poland merely to
attain the free decision of the peo-
Piles themselves regarding their fate.
and declared Russia was trying by
force to establish a soviet regime in
Poland.
NJ. Danishevsky, chairman of the
Russian soviet delegation. made
statement asserting the Ukraine was
an Independent republic allied to Rus
sia. He. therefore, proposed that the
Polish delegates obtain supplement
tary mandate from the Polish gov
ernment authorizing the delegation to
conduct peace negotiations with the
Ukraine Then NJ. Denishevsky read
the terms proposed by soviet Russia.
At the end of the session NJ. Danishev-
sky protested against what he term
ed the Polish policy of dragging out
the proceedings and asserted that all
responsibility for the bloody conse-
quences of such a policy would re-
main on the Polish delegates.