LAND AND 5VATER. 
April 10, 1915. 
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Hills. A second breach has been made in the line 
after the Dukla and about thirty or thirty-five 
miles away. 
It is not clear whether upon the Uszog 
(Pass road they have a hold of Turka or 
no, but it is probable, and thence their front 
reapproaches the central range until it finds 
itself on the Stryj road opposite German contin- 
fents which hold the mountain village of Koziowa. 
'urther east, the front hardly concerns the main 
.Carpathian battle, for it bends back further and 
further away from the mountains. 
One may sum up the Russian position in the 
hills as it was at the end of last week by saying 
that the Lupkow Pass is within an ace of falling 
into their hands, that the whole ridge for more 
than thirty miles on, even in the neighbourhood of 
the Uszog, is immediately threatened by their 
attack, which is now close up against the last 
summit, and that, in the sector between the Uszog 
and the Stryj railways they are a distance varying 
from one to two days' march from the summits of 
the hills. 
It is obvious that if Russian success should 
come in this neighbourhood it will, no more than 
the corresponding task in the West, take the form 
of a mere slow pushing back of the enemj-. The 
jRght is against a line which will either maintain 
itself, or break, or be compelled to take up some 
shorter position : and what that sliorter position 
can be on the Carpathian front it is not easy to 
discover. 
We know that in the West if tlie Germans 
should ever have to abandon their present 425 
miles of line they have behind them a line nearly 
a fifth shorter, and 5^et another behind that, the 
best line of all, quite a third shorter than their 
present line. But there is no such choice for the 
Austro- German forces in the Carpathians. They 
must hold the mountains or give them up. 
They w-ill have no such opportunity for the 
defence to which they are now reduced if they fall 
back into the open plain, or if they are found still 
unsuccessful in any counter-offensive wlien the 
snow melts and the new pasture comes in the open- 
ings of the mountain woodland. It is significant 
that verj"- considerable German reinforcements are 
being sent to this front. But those reinforcements 
are not inexhaustible. If they number, as it is 
believed, already seven army corps, they have 
surely reached the maximum of the stiffening 
which they can here lend to an unfortunate ally. 
Meanwhile, we must wait patiently to note 
week by week upon the map the nature and the 
extent of the Russian advance towards and over 
the ridge which, as I said at the opening of this, is, 
perhaps, at this moment the most critical field of 
the whole war. 
THE R.\ID ON CIIOTIN. 
The present phase of the war, in which close 
grips are established over long lines of country 
and advance is either very slow, as in the Carpa- 
thians, or halted altogether, as in France, natur- 
ally tempts such forces as maj^ be free for them 
to engage in raids. We had a Russian one on 
Memel the other day ; we have had an Austrian one 
at Chotin; and we should doubtless have corre- 
sponding efforts in the West were they possible. As 
tliey are not possible, their place is taken by occa- 
sional daslies through the air, which, like these 
Eastern raids, are not exactly co-ordinated with 
any general plan, but are only intended for some 
local effect, or by similar dashes across the sea. 
The history of this .sort of operation is always 
the same. You may watch it at work in ^^•ar after 
