Warsaw In Danger of Russ Capture

1920

Red Advance Takes Fortress; Americans Prepare to Flee From Capital.

BERLIN, Germany. — The fortress of Brest-Litovsk, the stronghold 110 miles east of Warsaw on the boundary line of Poland proper, is reported to have been captured by the Russians.

Nothing has been heard from the Polish armistice negotiators since they were swallowed up in the darkness within the Soviet Russian lines on their way to meet the Bolshevist armistice envoys.

The Polish emissaries have been instructed not to concede any point that might endanger Poland's independence. It had been intimated in various quarters that the Bolshevists would insist upon a Soviet government in Poland before granting an armistice.

The delegates likewise are ordered to hold out against disarmament of Poland and are instructed not to concede any frontier lines.

Bolshevist cavalry pursued the 2,000 Polish soldiers, who, with forty officers, crossed the German frontier in East Prussia Saturday, according to advices received here. The Russians threatened to follow the Poles across the national boundary, but refrained when German authorities disarmed the fugitives.

A Cracow dispatch say a Soviet republic has been proclaimed in Kovno and that Lithuanian troops have mutinied, being supported by the Soviet troops there.

A large number of ships are arriving at Danzig daily from French and British ports with munitions which are being rushed to the Polish front, according to word received here.

Bolshevist forces which have been concentrated on the banks of the Narew River, with the apparent object of driving to Warsaw along the Bug River, have delivered a series of strong attacks. The statement adds that the Poles have repulsed the Bolshevists with heavy loss in the sector near Topieloe, the Russians abandoning eleven machine guns and leaving 500 dead.

A desperate struggle is going on west of Bialystok, on the Brest-Litovsk railroad, for possession of the line running thru Topczeja and Dubina and along the rivers Nurets and Zerzyce.

The fighting in the Brody region is reported by the statement as favorable to the Poles.

Many Americans in Warsaw have already shipped their baggage and household goods to Danzig, Posen or Prague in anticipation of an attack by the Russian Bolshevists. Many woman workers with American organizations in Warsaw, as well as the wives of American officials, have left.

It is believed that negotiations between the Polish and Bolshevist armistice commissions may be continued for two or three days, or even longer, and in this event the Soviet advance either from the northeast of the east, if maintained, would bring the Bolshevists dangerously near Warsaw. On the other hand, some military observers contend the Soviet forces will be forced to stop within a day or two by exhaustion and lack of communication or a desire not to invade Poland farther.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2.