Sept. 7.
It is inevitable that there should be something im the nature of a lull after a declara~ tion of war, while the opposing forces get into touch with each other, and what is hapening in the east and west of Germany must Present a somewhat unbalanced picture, because hostilities commenced earlier along the Polish frontiers, than along the French, the few days making all the difference. Developments in Poland have now taken shape and some idea is procurable of the general German scheme of campaign. Roughly speaking there are at present three separate movements, the first to cut off the Corridor, and to secure communications between Germany and Danzig, the second, an advance southwards from the East Prussian border on Warsaw, and the third an advance eastward into Poland between Breslau and the Slovakian border, obviously with the idea of capturing that portion of Silesia seized by the Poles. In the Corridor, with the capture of Graudienz and Bydgoszez, the Germans appear to have gained command of the situation, and their claim to have captured 15,000 Poles as prisoners probably refers to those forces which may be entrapped within the Corridor north of the junction of the forces operating out of Germany and East Prussia. It may not yet mean that these men have actually been captured, Lut that they have been cut off from the main Polish forces, a contingency by no means unlikely, having in mind the speed with which the Germans have moved in this area, and the Strength which they threw into it, The Poles are continuing their resistance in this district, and it is still too carly to say that the Germans have succeeded in attaining the first of their objectives,—unhampered com munication with Danzig across the Corridor The distances across it are not great, and with all the speed of which a mechanized army is capable, the progress of the German armies in this area is undoubtedly slow, bearing eloquent testimony to the stubbornness of the Polish resistance. The movement of German troops across the southern borders of East Prussia appears to have made more headway. Mlawa was reached day oF so ago, and it is now claimed that Ciechanow rather under thirty miles from the boundary approximately 45 miles nort. of Warsaw has been reached. It is without doubt this advance which has alarmed a Proportion of the populace of the Polish capital which is evacuating the city and Seeking refuge south of the Vistula, Preparations are being made, it is re-Ported, to establish the seat of government elsewhere, which is no indication that Warsaw will not be stubbornly defended, but merely follows the precedent set in the last war when the Germans approached so closely to Paris that removal of the government Was actually in process before the Germans were arrested on the Marne and driven back to the Aisne. Warsaw is reputed to be heavily fortified, and the Germans may find its reduction not particularly easy. At the same time the movement into Silesia has been making some progress, and a line can with a degree of certainty be drawn in an are joining Katowice, Czestochow and Wiclun, with some further movement on the salient between those Inst two towns towards the north-cast suggesting that the important city of Lodz may be the immediate German objective with the al mate purpose of investing Warsaw from the south-east. If as it is reported the German forces have reached the neighbourhood of Warla and Radomsko some appreciable pro-. gress appears to have been made with the German forces having penetrated the Polish borders in this sector to about forty miles from the frontier. The report that the Siegfried line had been broken through, unbelievable at the time, has proved incorrect, Up to Tuesday night' there had been no fighting on the Franco-German front, though troops were massing on both sides, and there has not even been any preliminary artillery preparation. The frontier between the Rhine and Moselle extends from Sierck 10 Lauterbourg, where no river runs between the two countries, and as a result the opposing armies are able to establish direct contact, while from Lauterbourg to the Swiss boundaries the Rhine forms the frontier with the Maginot and Siegfried lines on the French and German' sides of the river respectively. These fortifications are some six miles back from the Rhine on both sides, and it is in this sort of no-man's land between the two that the armies are manquvring with Rhine at present keeping them apart. It is reported that French experts have expressed the opinion that the reduction of the Siegfried line presents no insuperable difficulties, but it is certainly not to be expected that this can be done overnight as rumour suggested it was.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.