Luneville and St. Die, with advanced posts about Ramberville, and a
strong wide-stretching cordon of cavalry still further forward, the
Third German Army, consisting of the 13th Würtemberg, and 1st and 2d
Bavarian Army Corps, under the command of Leopold, Prince Regent of
Bavaria, is to take up its position. The Prince is to make
demonstrations from time to time to hold in position the French
field-forces on its flanks and rear. If threatened in palpably
overwhelming strength, the army has a line of retreat across the Middle
Vosges open, striking back in the passes as it retires. Should the gap
be judged practical by-and-by because of the withdrawal of the French
field-forces to participate in the _mêlée_ in the interior of France,
instructions how to act will, of course, be sent from the Imperial
Headquarters. As soon as the mobilisation of the active army is
complete, the Landwehr is to be mobilised with all speed to the last
man, and got into readiness to reinforce the armies already in the
field, for the Fatherland will be contending against heavy odds, and
will need the devotion of all its sons. It should be said that the 2d
(Pomeranian) Army Corps is retained in Germany for the protection of the
northern coast.
THE FRENCH PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
While these preparations have been made by Germany, France has not been
idle. According to the latest telegrams from Paris, the original plan of
campaign devised by the French Etat-major has undergone modification,
now that it has become virtually certain that the main German advance is
to be made through Belgium. The contingency that a contributory stroke
may be made in that direction had, indeed, been in a measure provided
for originally. To meet it four Army Corps were to take up an initial
position in the fortress-bound triangle, La Fere-Soissons-Laon. Two were
to be on the Meuse between Mouzon and Dun to confront a possible German
entrance between Montmedy and Longwy. Three were allotted to the
frontier on the extreme south-east, since Italy is a member of the
Triple Alliance. The garrison of the Government of Paris was not to
move. The remaining ten corps were destined for the eastern frontier
from Verdun to Belfort.
But these arrangements have been dislocated now that it has become
apparent that a great German army is gathering on the eastern frontier
of Belgium, with plain intent to strike for Northern France through that
State. General Saussier, who holds the high position of
Commander-in-Chief of all the French armies, and the chief of staff,
General Miribel, have had the sudden task of planning other
dispositions. No fewer than seven Army Corps, the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 9th,
10th, and 11th, all furnished by the most adjacent territorial military
‘regions,’ are now to constitute the army to be massed in and beyond the
La Fere-Soissons-Laon triangle, and beyond toward the northern frontier
west of the Givet salient, and this army Saussier himself is to command.
An army of two corps, the 5th and 6th, commanded by General Carre de
Bellemar, is to line the Meuse on the northeast, as in the original
disposition. Seven corps, the 7th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 17th, and 18th, are
to constitute the field forces and garrisons of the eastern frontier,
divided into two armies, the northern army of three corps commanded by
General de Galliffet, the southern of four by the Duc de Auerstädt
(Davoust). Three corps, the 14th, 15th, and 16th, all of south-eastern
domicile, are to watch the Italian frontier from Albertville to Mentone,
under the chief command of General Thomassin. The French mobilisation
was set about appreciably later than the German; but once begun, no time
has been lost, and the rapidity with which it has progressed and is
being completed has surprised even those who were most strongly
convinced of the regeneration of military France.
PUBLIC FEELING IN ENGLAND.
DEBATE IN THE HOUSE.
LONDON, _May 3_.
While, thus armed and fortified, France and Germany stand watching each
other across the Rhine, we in England remain in a suspense profounder
than we have experienced any time this side of the Napoleonic wars. The
political excitement during the last few days has been intense, and at
the prospect now imminent of the violation of the neutrality of Belgium
has set the country by the ears. The people, the Press, and the
politicians of England are deeply stirred, and the crowded public
meeting, called at a few hours’ notice, which was held yesterday in
London is a proof, if proof were needed, that the Government will be
compelled by popular feeling to strain every nerve to avert from
‘gallant little Belgium’ the violation of that neutrality, to the
maintenance of which Britain stands pledged. The opposition press,
ablaze with zeal for the honour of England now that there seems an
opening for the charge of supineness against the Government, shrieks in
scathing leaders that the voice of the nation should enforce on the
_fainéant_ Ministry its imperative duty of addressing vehement
remonstrances to the Great Teuton power. The journals favourable to the
Government cannot refrain from addressing strong representations to the
Cabinet regarding the uncertain future of Antwerp if Belgium is again to
become the cockpit of Europe, and the standing menace to Britain which
that great fortress will become if it pass into other hands than those
of the Belgians. The House, too, appears equally moved, and not a day
has passed but at the question hour a rattle of shrewish interpellations
has been shot across the House at the target of the Treasury Bench. The
inexplicable composure of Her Majesty’s Ministers has, however, at
length, broken down before the insistence of the Opposition.
On Tuesday, when the German mobilisation over against the eastern
frontier of Belgium was well forward, and when there remained no longer
any doubt that the army gathering there would traverse that State, Sir
William Harcourt rose in his place, every eye in the House centred on
him, and with portentous earnestness of aspect and manner, demanded that
the Leader of the House should name an early day for a debate on ‘the
grave international questions and eventualities connected with the
imminent violation of the neutrality of Belgium, and the attitude of the
ministry in relation to those questions and eventualities.’ Sir William
reseated himself with, indeed, a brow of care and gravity, as beseemed a
statesman dealing with a momentous crisis; but the lower section of his
expressive visage mantled with a conscious complacency which seemed to
indicate a conviction that he had propounded something in the nature of
a ‘settler’ for this apparently inertest of Governments. ‘Take
to-morrow, if you like,’ drawled the Leader of the House without rising,
and then he actually and visibly yawned. The smirk faded out of Sir
William’s face at the roar of laughter, irrepressible on the part of the
Liberals and Conservatives alike, which followed Mr. Balfour’s drawl and
yawn.
[Illustration:
A SCENE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS—SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT QUESTIONS THE
GOVERNMENT.
]
The Opposition papers have vied in vituperation of Mr. Balfour’s
_insouciance_, which they described as ‘insolence,’ ‘impertinence,’ and
‘insult.’ One provincial journal congratulates Sir William Harcourt on
his self-restraint in having refrained from pulling Mr. Balfour’s nose,
and another, with startling novelty, compares the latter to Nero
fiddling while Rome was burning. But yesterday’s scene in the House has
shown, at least, that the Government, though composed, has not been
indifferent. It must have been galling to many of the hot-brained to
have observed that when in the afternoon Mr. Balfour lounged into the
crowded House, he showed no symptoms of being crushed, or even
perturbed, by this avalanche of invective. In opening the debate, the
ordinarily bland and gentle Sir William Harcourt displayed a truculent
aggressiveness which startled all listeners, so foreign was it to his
previously disclosed nature. When he had finished, and the dust had
settled a little, Mr. Balfour slowly rose. He spoke as follows:
‘Her Majesty’s Government were confidentially informed a year ago, both
by Germany and Belgium, that those two States had concluded a secret
convention, in terms of which, in case of war between Germany and
France, Belgium was to permit German troops to pass through her
territory and to utilise her railways. It no doubt is a question whether
Belgium has any right thus to permit the violation of her neutrality
guaranteed by the Great Powers, but the question in the circumstances is
an abstract one. Who is to intervene to hinder her? Not Germany, who has
made a bargain with her for the right of violation. Not France, who
violated Belgian neutrality with impunity in 1870, and who, if she now
is ready in time, will, in her anxiety to fight the Germans outside the
French frontier, assuredly violate it again—if, indeed, the act can be
termed violation when the neutrality is virtually dead already by
Belgium’s own act. In eastern Europe there is other business on hand
just now, than solicitude for the protection of Belgian neutrality. Does
the right hon. baronet propose that England should undertake this task
single-handed, and, _inter alia_, force Belgium against her will to
co-operate with us in retrieving the neutrality she has already
surrendered? We should, and in hostility to Belgium, stand alone, in an
attempt to make good the guarantee we entered into conjointly with other
Powers; and I say frankly that this is not a Quixotic Government. But
when we were informed, in strict confidence, of this convention, we took
measures for the interest and protection of Great Britain. Those
measures may give umbrage in certain quarters; that we cannot help. We
claimed and obtained from Belgium the right to occupy and garrison the
great fortress of Antwerp if the convention alluded to should become
operative, and to hold that fortress pending the solution of the
momentous events now clearly impending on the Continent of Europe. We
recognised the impossibility of enduring in Antwerp a possibly hostile
neighbour so close to our own street-door, and we resolved and have
secured the right to be our own neighbour over the way in the troublous
times approaching. During the past week we have been quietly and
unostentatiously making some needful preparations. These are now so
forward that I may inform the House that a complete division of British
infantry and artillerymen 15,000 strong will be embarked at sundry of
our ports on the day after to-morrow, and will land at Antwerp on the
following morning, being conveyed swiftly in steam transports under the
convoy of the Channel Squadron. The division will sail fully equipped
with an adequate supply of stores. Its commander will be a soldier whose
name and fame are familiar to us all; I refer to that distinguished
officer, Sir Evelyn Wood. The Belgians hand us over Antwerp as it
stands, with fortress, artillery, ammunition, and all appliances for
defensive operations which we fervently pray and trust that there shall
be no occasion to engage in.’
The cheering throughout Mr. Balfour’s short but pregnant speech had been
frequent and hearty; when he sat down it swelled in volume and force
that seemed to shake the roof. Sir William Harcourt, with the best grace
he could assume, professed himself satisfied, and the debate collapsed.
Late last night it was reported that the Government asked and received
powers to enlist 20,000 men, and to call out for duty a large number of
militia battalions.
BATTLE AT ALEXANDROVO.
DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIANS.
(_By Telegraph from our Special Correspondent, Mr. Charles Lowe._)
ALEXANDROVO (IN RUSSIAN POLAND), _May 2_.
As a result of the scouting ride undertaken by a squadron of Zieten
Hussars from this place, as mentioned in a late telegram of mine, it was
resolved at Headquarters here (and the decision was sanctioned by the
Emperor before his return to Berlin _en route_ for the Rhine) to make
another reconnaissance, this time in force with the view, if possible,
of ousting the Russians from Alexandrovo and possessing ourselves of
that important frontier position; for that the best defensive is an
energetic offensive is a maxim which still forms the chief guiding
principle of German warfare.
To-day, accordingly, a force consisting of the 6th Infantry Division,
under Lieutenant-General Von Schnabeltitz, a combined Cavalry Brigade
(Zieten Hussars and 3d, or Kaiser Alexander II. von Russland, Uhlans),
under Major-General von Säbelschlucker; and two sections (comprising six
batteries each, of six guns) under Major Count von Donnerkeil; to-day, I
say, this force, starting at dawn, made a rapid march eastward, and was
soon across the little stream forming the frontier, where the Russian
outposts—who seemed to be singularly supine—were quickly driven in by a
few shots from our advance guard. From a wounded Muscovite, who was shot
in the thigh and had to be left behind by his comrades, we learned that
Alexandrovo was, after all, not quite so strongly held as our late
reconnaissance had led us to suppose, its entire defending force
consisting of only one Infantry Brigade, under Major-General
Grodnovodsky, with several guns, a few sotnias of Cossacks, and two
squadrons of Dragoons. Perceiving, therefore, that we were considerably
stronger in all our arms—especially our infantry and artillery—we made
haste to push on towards our objective, and managed, by advancing at the
double, to gain the rising ground on our side of Alexandrovo before the
enemy could anticipate our design. But it was a close race; nor was it
won by us without a sharp brush, involving several casualties on either
side, between one of our Hussar squadrons, under Rittmeister Von
Rummelsburg, and a sotnia of Don Cossacks, who were very bravely led,
whoever was their commander.
Von Rummelsburg, who was sent forward with his Hussars to feel the
ground in front of our infantry, had just gained the brow of the
acclivity in question when he perceived the Cossacks making for the same
vantage-ground from the opposite side, and at once charged down upon
them in the gallantest style, emptying a few Russian saddles even before
the shock, for his regiment was one of those that had been
experimentally armed with the new combination lance-rifle—the invention
of an ingenious locksmith at Potsdam—of which the Emperor became
enamoured last year, and several of the brave Cossacks had thus
succumbed to the impact of lead before they could come within stabbing
distance of the equally fatal German spear—a notable feature this in
_fin de siècle_ warfare, and one that is likely to impress itself still
more vividly in the course of the present campaign.
The Cossacks being thus flung back on their infantry, whose movements
were of an unaccountably slow and confused kind, our guns dashed up to
the top of the bluff, which had formed the bone of contention between us
and the Muscovites, and, unlimbering like lightning, began to blaze away
at the retreating horsemen with shrapnel which seemed to do further
execution amongst them. Then, laying their pieces at long range and
loading with percussion-fuse shells, Donnerkeil’s gunners hastened to
rain a terrific torrent of destructive projectiles on the railway
station of Alexandrovo, behind which Grodnovodsky’s infantry had retired
for temporary shelter. His guns planted on a rising bit of orchard
ground on his left, were energetically enough worked against our
batteries, but did us little or no harm, as the Prussian artillerists,
always very careful in their selection of a firing position even in the
tumult of action, showed little more than the mere muzzles of their guns
over the crest of the land-wave, in the rear dip of which the infantry
of the 6th Division were lying prone and scatheless in eager readiness
to rush on as soon as the cannon of the Russians should be reduced to
silence.
Nor had they long to wait for this result, for the furious artillery
duel had barely lasted an hour when Grodnovodsky’s guns were seen to
limber up—such of them as had escaped dismounting—and lumber off; and
then our impatient battalions, throwing out their first fighting line,
fanlike, in skirmishing order, with supports behind and reserves
following, all in as machine-like and magnificent order as at a
field-day on the Tempelhof Common, began to push forward, the guns
firing over their heads all the while as they swarmed down the
Russian-ward slope of our eminence and across the rye and potato fields,
still rather wet and cloggy from last night’s rain, in front of
Alexandrovo. The Russian infantry attempted to debouch from their
shell-shattered position behind the railway station and other adjacent
buildings, and deploy in line of purpose to stem our steadily advancing
tide; but our guns, which were still able to pound away over the heads
of our own battalions, played dreadful havoc with their shrapnel charges
among Grodnovodsky’s out-manœuvred troops, who were also mown down in
great numbers by the fearful fire of our magazine-rifles, of which the
murderous volleys appeared to inspire our opponents with a feeling of
panic as unfamiliar to them as the effects of smokeless powder; and, for
the first time probably in all the military history of Russia, the
soldiers of the Czar positively turned tail and fled before superior
numbers and unaccustomed terrors.
Yet the dead and wounded whom they left behind amply attested the
tenacious bravery with which they had fought; and the losses on our
side were not insignificant, including, as they did, the
death of Colonel von Degenzieher and Lieutenant Prince Zu
Sonnenwalde-Drachenfels-Schinckenstein, a young man as brave as he was
handsome, both of the 8th Brandenburg (Prince Frederick Charles’s)
Infantry Regiment.
Still, the loss of these two gallant officers, and other brave men on
our side, was more than compensated for by the capture of Alexandrovo
(into which we marched, or rather rushed, with colours flying, and drums
beating) with its rich accumulation of railway rolling stock, which will
be far more precious to us than acres upon acres of military stores.
How in the Heaven’s name the Russians could ever have failed to
concentrate, at the very outset of this war, a more formidable defending
force around so very important a strategic point as Alexandrovo, is a
bewildering puzzle even to those who have busied themselves with the
systematic study of the Russian character; but, at any rate, there
_they_ were and here _we_ are, thanks to the incredible supineness of
our foes, their contemptible outpost service, the audacity and sudden
swiftness of our movements, and the disastrous surprise which we then
sprung upon them.
My courier returns with this despatch to Thorn, where I trust he will be
able to commit it to the wires.
OCCUPATION OF ALEXANDROVO BY THE GERMANS.
ALEXANDROVO, _May 3_.
It is not yet twenty-four hours since the victorious 6th Division of the
German Army occupied this place, and already it is bristling on the
Warsaw, or south-eastern side, with a most formidable line of
earthworks, thanks chiefly to the marvellous exertions of the Engineer
Battalion of the 3d Corps, which was quick to arrive here by rail
yesterday, within an hour of our triumph—the first of the campaign. But,
indeed, the spades of all our infantry have also been incessantly at
work since they piled their rifles here, it being thought certain that
the Russians will endeavour to get a double amount of work out of their
cranky, creaking mobilisation machine, and hasten to deliver a desperate
counter-attack, with the view of repairing the disastrous error they
have committed—an error that has placed us in possession of a railway
base of operations of incalculable price. Among other spoils we captured
123 railway waggons of various kinds, and nine locomotives, which, added
to the rolling stock that is hourly pouring in from the direction of
Thorn, with the remainder of the German Army of the Vistula, now rapidly
massing here, render us certain of the means of transport in the event
of our deciding to carry the torch of invasion deeper into the heart of
Russia.
It is true that the railway from here to Warsaw consists of only a
single track, but the gauge, unlike that of all Russian lines on the
right bank of the Vistula, is of the ordinary European size, and that in
itself is a tremendous advantage for us. Our Army of the Baltic, under
Count Waldersee, will be hampered in its forward movements into Russia,
if it decides to push across the frontier also, by the fact that the
line from Eydtkuhnen is a broad-gauge one, though, indeed, it is
understood that the General Staff—prescient in all things—has also made
provision for adapting the axles of German lines to the broader gauge of
Russian; but, on the other hand, the Army of Silesia, under Prince
George of Saxony, will enjoy the same transport facilities as ourselves,
if it can only manage to effect, like us, a _pied à terre_ on the Warsaw
and Vienna line, and we are anxiously awaiting news of its movements.
CAPTURE OF CZENSTOCHAU BY PRINCE GEORGE OF SAXONY.
PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG A PRISONER.
(_By Telegraph from our Special Correspondent, Mr. Charles Lowe._)
ALEXANDROVO, _May 4_.
There is great jubilation among the troops here, for, following hard on
the telegram announcing the Emperor’s departure from Berlin to the Rhine
amid an unparalleled scene of excitement and enthusiasm, came a despatch
reporting that Prince George of Saxony, by dint of forced marches of
immense difficulty through the devious moors and marsh-grounds east of
Rosenberg and Tarnowitz on the Kreuzburg-Tarnowitz line, had also
succeeded in surprising the Russians at Czenstochau, on the
Warsaw-Vienna Railway, and, capturing that important place, after a
desperate but unavailing resistance on the part of its defenders, who,
incredible to relate, consisted of not much more than its usual
garrison—a brigade of infantry and two brigades of cavalry. But the
German losses here were much more serious than with us yesterday, one
infantry regiment in particular—the 22d Silesian—being more than
decimated in its desperate, yet successful, endeavours to drive the
enemy from a clump of wood, surmounted by a battery—a proof that it
still continues to be animated by the heroic spirit of its name-chief,
Field-Marshal James Keith, whilom of Inverugie and Dunnottar, in the
Kingdom of Scotland, who, at its head, met his own death, under the eye
of Frederick the Great, when saving the surprised right flank of the
Prussian Army from utter annihilation by the Austrians at Hochkirch in
the Lausitz.
These two engagements, then, though on a smaller scale, have been the
Wörth and Spichern of the present war; and it now only remains to be
seen whether we shall be able to improve upon these initial
successes—which were due to a great extent, I repeat, to the exceeding
swiftness and daring of our own movements, as compared with the
incredible slowness of our foes, and the faultiness of their
mobilisation process, no less than to the fact that the Russians,
imagining the Germans would never dare invade Poland, but remain upon
their guard and form a flanking reserve support in Silesia to their
Austrian allies, directed the main stream of their mobilisation further
to the east, towards Dragomiroff’s line of hostile advance upon Lemberg
and the Carpathian Passes to the south thereof at Stryj.
How Gourko, who is known to be still at Warsaw, though the bulk of his
forces must now be well in front of him, will endeavour to cope with the
situation thus so suddenly created for him, is naturally the question
which occupies all minds here, and it cannot be very long before his
intentions are made manifest.
Meanwhile the telegrams from Galicia, where our Austrian allies have
concentrated the bulk of their forces, are not quite so encouraging,
indicating, as they do, less initiative and promptitude of action on
their part, as well as considerable difference of opinion in the minds
of the Corps and Army Commanders as to whether they ought to remain on
the defensive, or espouse an audacious policy of invasion like
ourselves, and essay to beard the lion, or rather the bear, in his den.