Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-12
Defenders Fall
Back Upon
Capital
TROTSKY ARRIVES
ON BATTLE FRONT
.uaders Within Rifle
Shot of Warsaw,
Germany Hears.

By the Associated Press.
LONDON, August 1z.-Rus-
sian cavalry has reached Praga,
a suburb of Warsaw, accord
ing to wireless dispatch re-
ceived here from Berlin today.
LONDON, August 11.-Advices from
Warsaw, obtained at a source usually
well informed. say the Polish general
staff plans to retreat to a fortified
line running just to the north of Mod
lin (Novogeorgievsk) through Rad
qymin. to a point near Minsk- -Nazo-
wiecki.
This would bring the line to ap-
proximately twelve miles from War
saw. The Polish staff. it is said, be-
1ieve the Poles would be able to hold
up the advance on this line for sew
eral days at least.
JOHANNESBURG, East Prussia, Au-
gust 11.--Reports that Mlawa, an i'm
portant cils on the Warsaw-Danzig
railway. was taken by the Russian
bolsheviki on Tuesday. and that So
Wet cavalry was within rifle shot of
Warsaw, the fall of which was ex-
pected Thursday or Friday, were
brought here today by a correspond
ent of the Koenigsberg Allegemeine
Zeitung. There have been no official
dispatches substantiating this state
ment, and most recent advices from
the fighting area have shown the boil
the Polish capital.
Americans, British and French, who
are fighting with the Poles against the
bolsheviki, are considered fair game to
kill" by the common soldiers Of the
soviet army, it is declared by the cor
have been told these fighters are ''bour-
geoisie who should be exterminated."
Trotsky at Btalystok.
* WARSAW. August ia commupi-
cation issued by the war office says
there IS heavy fighting on, ,either tip Of
ths hook-shaped line which tile boishe-
Wiki are trying to bend down upon the
Vistula river with Warsaw as the prize.
The Polish garrison at Mlawa has re.
peHed repeated rcd attacks.
Between the Narew and Bug rivers
there is close up fighting in which the
Poles are holding their own. For the
most part the reds are using machine
guns and rifles
Leon Trotsky. Russian bolshevik
minister of war. has arrived at
just behind the soviet
front. and has set up headquarters
there, according to news from the
other side Of the battle line. Speak
ing in wilma, the capital of Lithuania,
recently, he announced soviet Russia
had been officially recognized by the
western powers and that MN. Krassin
and Kameneff, heads of the bolshevik
mission to Great Britain,
had been received at London with the
usually accorded foreign
He asserted bolshevism
was more powerful than ever and
would soon spread to other countries"
Europe Red In Year.
'In year." he continued. "all Eu-
rope will be bolshevik."
Warsaw newspapers publish inter-
views with soldiers. who declare the
bolsheviki advancing upon this city
claim they have come to exterminate
the bourgeoisie and distribute the
land among peasants. 1t is asserted
they impartially pillage mansions,
farms and cottages, and either forci-
bly, enlist the men or send them to the
rear.
In the Bialystok district the bolshe-
Wiki took number of hostages threat
ening to shoot them if food supplies are
not delivered to the soviet army within
a specified time. 1t is said the country
behind the bolshevik lines is suffering
reQuisitioned and sent eastward by the
bolshevik authorities.
Bolshevik prisoners say that the high
command of the soviet armies fear a
reverse before Warsaw, and it hastily
preparing positions on the line of Grod-
no, Slonim and Sarny, to which it can
withdraw in case of defeat.
Hundreds of c0nVavancaS nf an do
scriptions, loaded with barbed wire and
driven by boys and old men, are stream
ing through the Polish capital toward
the battlefront Mingled with them
along the roads are endless trains of
supply wagons which are guarded by
elderly civilians armed with rifles. All
able-bodied men are being relieved from
other duties SO that they may be made
available in the fight for the defense of
Warsaw.
Women soldiers are hurrying from
place to place, acting as couriers, and
French officers are showing extreme
activity, racing around the city in auto
mobiles.
AS the fighting front draws nearer
Warsaw squads of citizens, wearing
their ordinary civilian clothing and
straw hats, but armed with rifles, are
the determined-looking groups pass
through the streets many boys in
elderly meR and we'll
to-do merchants are to be seen side
by side with them. Class distinctions
are being forgotten or brushed aside
Newspaper accounts Of the prepara-
tions declare that the spirit of the
people is to defend Warsaw, repel the
invader and not to count the cost in
blood.
Soviet Claims Advance.
LONDON. August 12-Progress for
the Russians against the Poles on the
southern front was announced in
Wednesdays official statement from
Moscow, received today. Wlodawa,
on the Bug south of Brest-Litovsk,
has finally been taken by the soviet
troops. while further southeast they
have captured Vladimir Volynsky,
east Of the Bug, north of the old
Galician border. Further advances on
the front nearer Warsaw also are an
nounced. The statement reads:
I'm the direction of Plotsk fighting
is proceeding for possession Of the
town of Mlawa- On August we oc-
cupied the towns Of Makov and Gle
chanow. Further to the southeast we
have reached the Orzyc river. Re
tween the Narew and the Bug we are
driving the enemy back westward
Further south we are advancing on
the river Nuretz.
"On August 10 we occupied the town
of Radomir. and on the 9th, after
fierce fighting. we occupied the town
of Wlodawa- In the region of Vladi-
mir-Volynsky we occupied the town
OF that name and are continuing to