Having decided that the sessions of the Duma and the Council of the Empire shall be resumed in the month of August at the latest, I rely on the Council of Ministers to draw up, according to my indications, the Bills necessitated by a time of war.—Reuter.
RUSSIA’S DEFENSIVE PLAN
A dispatch to the London Daily Chronicle from Petrograd on July 6 said:
The Russian defense is now a two-fold and rather complex process. Along the frontiers the army is parrying blows of the enemy and wearing him down, avoiding big battles, losing territory indeed, little by little, but gaining time and husbanding resources.
The other side of the process is the rally of the nation to the support of the army. It would be wholly wrong to regard the gradual advance of the Germans and Austrians in Russian territory as evidence that Russian resistance is breaking down. On the contrary the nation has never been so thoroughly aroused as now.
The broad back of the Russian soldier has done marvels in sustaining the heavy burden of war, but when retreat in Galicia began it suddenly flashed on the nation that this was not enough—valor must be reinforced by technique. The attitude of the nation to the war immediately changed. Formerly it was a spectator watching with eager hope mingled with anxiety the deeds of the army that was part of its very self. Now it has become an active reserve of the army and in securing liberty to act it has gained in moral force.
The Cabinet is being strengthened, more effective contact is being established between the Government and the nation, and the War Office is now the centre of popular interest.
Russia has not yet followed the example of her allies in appointing a Minister of Munitions, but the course of events is tending in this direction and the new War Minister, General Polivanoff, commands the confidence of the Duma and nation generally. The War Office has become the focus of the new national organizing movement of which all existing public bodies are being made the nucleus.
FIGHTING ON TWO RIVERS
The statement issued by the German Army Headquarters Staff in Berlin on June 30 reported: