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EUROPEAN WAR DEVELOPMENTS. The recapture of Boclmia, twenty-five miles east of Cracow, and the advance of the Austrian troops nr. ring eastward in Galicia to within sixty miles of the besieged fortress of Przemysl, is announced in an ollicial statement from the war otlice at Vienna as follows: "The garrison at Przemysl has made a new sortie in force in which the Hungarian lamlwehr stormed a point dappui, surrounded by wire entanglements, and brought back to the fortress a number of prisoners and some captured machine guns. In Galicia and South Poland the retreating enemy is being pursued along the entire front. At Lisko. Krosno. Jaslo and in the Biala valley strong Russian forces offered resistance. In the Donajec valley our troops advanced lighting to Zakliczyn. Bochnia southeast of Cracow has been retaken by us." The correspondent of the Ixmdon Times in" Petrbgrad understands that three additional corps from the west have reached the German armies on the Russian front milking altogether nine corps which have reached Field .Marshal . von lllndenhurg within a month. The Germans were thereby able, he says, to scud two corps on the Polish front. The correspondent adds that it appears t lint 170,000 Austro-Germaiis hare already crossed the Dukla and neighboring passes in the Carpathian mountains. The Austrian contingent, he says, includes three active corps, the withdrawal of which from the Servian front, led to disaster there. An official announcement issued at Berlin says of the raid on the British coast: "Parts of our hign seas tleet made an attack on the English coast and boinlmrded on the 10th, early in the morning, both fortified and coast places at ScarlKirough and Hartlepool. Regarding its future course of action no information can yet lie given." The squadron which1 shelled Hartloivool. where the bombardment was most destructive to life and property, was composed, the British admiralty announces, of two battle cruisers and an armored cruiser, while from four to six light cruisers attacked Scarborough and Whit by. The German sipiadron escaped practically " unharmed. The organized pursuit that drew Englands, great ships from their stations at sea could not catch u: witli or cut off the fast raiders. The Germans had in their favor a heavy mist, which covered the spa. and they made a rapid withdrawal after raining shells on the coast towns for aoiit thirty, minutes. The raider. killed probably seventy-lire iriiialns and soldiers, wounded 27."i persons, and destroyed an immense amount of property. Th; steamship Princess Olga, bound for Aberdeen, Scot land, struck a mine off Scarborough and went down. The crew of eighteen men lauded in its own boats. Petrograd reports that Germany is preparing for a third attempt to capture Warsaw. Big German forces are massing at the extreme left of their l.owicz-llow front, practically on the banks of the Vistula. Their plan appears to lie to cross the Vistula to the rear of the Russian line running between Ploek and a point soutli of Mlawa or move up the left bank between How and the river. They are reported to have constructed a bridge across the river to the southeast of Plock. This new German concentration in such force, it is believed, constitutes an effort to drive a wedge back to Sochaczew, thirty miles west or Warsaw, witli the idea of cutting railroad communication between Lodz and Warsaw. This movement has been met by a strongly reinforced Russian column, which, during the last several days, has been slowly forcing the Germans back in the vicinity of Sochaeezw. Here the fighting has been severe, each side making repented attacks and counter attacks. Army headquarters at Berlin announced: "The Russian offensive against Silesia and Posen has completely broken down. In the whole of Poland the enemy was forced to retreat after tierce and stubborn frontal battles and is being pursued everywhere. During the lighting in northern Poland Wednesday and the previous day. the bravery of the west Prussian Hessian regiments gained a victory. The effect of this victory cannot yet be estimated." A late dispatch from Warsav says: "A great buttle is in progress at Sochaczew, thirty miles west of Warsaw. The German wedge, which is proceeding southeast from How, lias managed, after heavy lighting, in which serious losses are reported to have been afflicted, to establish itself a quarter of a mile west of Sochaczew. The Polish campaign now centers at that point." The French war office save out an official statement as follows: "Between the sea and the Lvs we have occupied several German trenches at the point of the bayonet, consolidated our positions ;t Lombaertzyde and St. Georges and organized th- territory taken from the enemy to the west of Gheluvelt. We have made progress at some injints in the region of Vermelles. There has been no infantry action liking the rest of the front, but we report effective shooting on the part of our hea-y artillery in the environs of Tracy-Ie-Val, on the Aisne and in Champagne, as well as in the Argonne and in the region of Verdun. In Lorraine and in Alsace there is nothing to report." The allies, aided by the British and French warships, have pushed back the Germans in Belgium and now have progressed as far as the sea to the northeast of Nieuport. Tliev alro have gained to the southeast of Ypirs and along the railroad in the direction of La Bassee. On the extreme right wing a report from Basle, Switzerland, says tin? French armies have taken the offensive along tlte entira line from Belfort .to Salute Marie-Aux-Mines. The dispatcli says the French have converted Tliann into a stronghold. The- heavy artillery fire causes windows in, Basle houses to "shake night and day. Three- steamers, one believed 1o lie a passenger ship, were sunk by mines in the North sea off Flam borough head Wednesday night. Only one has been identified. This is the steamer Elterwater. Twelro of her crew were saved, but seven lost their lives. The casualties on the other ships have not been ascertained, but it is reported that the crew and passengers of the passenger vessel were seen taking to their boats. A dispatcli from Hartlepool says: "As the German fleet steamed out to sea they dropped mines to prevent any ships from following in their wake." A communication issued by the Russian army staff in the Caucasus says: "The Turks, reinforced from Bagdad and bv a new formation, assumed the offensire in the Euphrates valley and the Win region, which resulted in a number of engagements of secondary importance. In these battles the Russians were invariably victorious. Turkish forces are demoralized and in some cases hare lost their . effectiveness." In view of the possibilities of an invasion, London is now to have a defense corps under a title hitherto not used in that countrr. "The National guard." Forty men of the crew of the German cruiser Em-den, who were left o:i Cocas island when the Australian cruiser Sydney discovered the Emden and forced it to run ashore some time ago, are reported to have captured a collier, mounted two Maxims on it and now are raiding commerce in the Pacific. The defeat of the Russians In the Caucasus in battles which lasted for several days is claimed by the Turks. "The battles on the eastern frontier, in the region of Vilajetswali, came to a favorable conclusion," the statement says. "The positions at Sarai were taken by surrounding the enemy, who is now retreating toward Kotur." The evacuation of Vermelles, a town of Northern France, by German troops is admitted in an oil! rial report transmitted from the general staffs headquarters and lmide public at Berlin. Heavy lighting has centered about Vermelles for several weeks. The report is dated December !. The kaisers health is not causing alarm in Berlin. He contracted the grip in Poland, but it is learned from a confidential source that his condition is so much improved that ho expects to return lo the west front in two -or three days. A dispatch from Mitylcne states a British sipiadron bombarded Turkish troops concentrated along the Gulf of Saros, an inlet of the Aegean Sea, on Sunday. The Argentine cruiser Pueyrradon. after a lint chase, has seized the German steamer Patagonia in the Gulf of San Jorge. The Austrian general staff reports that 31.000 Russians have been taken prisoners in West Galicia. Thirty-one per cent of the GG1.O0O organized workers of Germany are in the army.
