Therefore, be it Resolved
That we appeal to the President, if consistent with the public interest, to call the early attention of Congress to the pressing need of prompt and efficient action so that the resources of our great country can be utilized for the proper defense of the Republic;
And, Resolved, That the National Security League, under whose auspices this Peace and Preparation Conference has been held, be urged to continue the work which it has already undertaken, of bringing the American people to a full realization of our deplorable state of unpreparedness and of the necessity of action by Congress.
Przemysl and Lemberg
German Reports of Mackensen’s
Victorious Thrust in Galicia
Przemysl fell to the German arms on June 3, 1915, ten weeks after the Russians had captured the fortress and its Austrian garrison following a six months' investment. The campaign which meant as its first result the recapture of this great fortress of nineteen modern forts and sixteen field fortifications, with innumerable trenches, was continued by the renewal of the "thrust" of General von Mackensen toward Lemberg, the capital of Galicia. Semi-official figures published in Berlin estimated the Russian losses from May 1 to June 18, when the victorious German armies were approaching the gates of Lemberg, at 400,000 dead and wounded and 300,000 prisoners, besides 100,000 lost before Field Marshal von Hindenburg's forces in Poland and Courland. On June 22 Berlin reported five Austro-German armies shelling the last lines of the Russian defenses before Lemberg, which fell on June 23.
The admitted weakness of Russia in this campaign was the exhaustion of her ammunition supplies. The intent of the German thrust was to drive the Russians far back and establish easily defended positions from which the Germans might detach forces for operations against Italy and the Allies in the west. Political consequences, also, were expected from German success in Galicia in deterring Bulgaria and Rumania from entering the war.
On June 21 advices reaching Tokio from Vladivostok indicated that heavy shipments of munitions of war intended for use by Russia's armies had arrived at that seaport, in such quantities that facilities were lacking to forward them by rail through Siberia.