20 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 2

On their left the Russian Army have also had to

retire. The Russians on Thursday were obliged to abandon Czerno- witz, though it is to be hoped that the abandonment will not be for long, and the Bukowina is now reported to be com- pletely evacuated and in the hands of the Austrians. There seems good reason to believe, however, that large Russian reinforcements are on their way south, and it may well be that the Austrian triumph will be quite short-lived. Friday's Daily Mail, it may be mentioned, contains a telegram from its correspondent in Roumania, who was in Czernowitz on Tuesday. He gives some exceedingly interesting details as to the mountain fighting that has been going on of late, details which read very much like the stories of Macdonald's campaign on the Spliigen at the beginning of last century. One fact mentioned deserves special notice. A Russian officer informed him that the Russians were under a very great debt to the Roumanian sympathizers in the districts through which they passed. The correspondent also tells us that the enemy's patrols as they advanced "received a mixed welcome from the inhabitants."