It is an important fact that the eastern group of the Austro-Hungarian army will clearly not be shattered.  At Zaleszcyki a stand is being maintained, and at Boyan on the Pruth the Austrian mortars have driven the Russians out of their next-to-the-last positions before the Bessarabian frontier.

The speech of the Hungarian Minister of Defense of the Realm, Baron Hazai, who a few days ago discussed the military situation of the recent past in exhaustive fashion, is very interesting in many respects.  It doubtless aimed to set in the right light the bravery of the Austro-Hungarian Army, for there have been persons who took little or no note of the achievements of that army.  The Minister selected examples from the warfare of the eighteenth century, the time of the lukewarm campaigns, and the warfare of the nineteenth century, the era of logical and energetical battles.  From this period of mobile wars, that were carried on under the principle of energy, he came to the preparations for the present war and estimated the number of soldiers which the belligerent parties had drawn to the colors at between 25,000,000 and 26,000,000 men.  More than half of these are to be regarded as warriors, while the rest are doing service as reserves for the army or in the lines of support and communication outside the fighting zone.  The highest number of fighters on a single theatre of the war included from six to seven million fighters on both sides.  The long trench warfare, the Minister rightly pointed out, demands greater energy than was ever demanded at any time of the troops, and a loss of from 10 per cent. to 15 per cent. of the fighting force today no longer keeps back the leaders from executing far-going decisions.  Today the fronts clash, not in one-day or several day battles, but for weeks and months at a time, so that many of the fighters even now have already taken part in 100 battles.  These instructive and appreciative words from an authoritative station throw a bright light upon the strength of the nations which are sacrificing their forces in a sense of duty to their fatherland.  But the lesson which the homeland should draw from such unprecedented self-sacrifice consists of this—­always to stand as a firm protective wall behind the army, never to deny it recognition and encouraging approval, and to dissipate its cares for the present and for the future.

The Campaign in the Carpathians

Russian Victory Succeeded by Reverses and Defeat.

THE VICTORY IN APRIL.

[By the Correspondent of The London Times.]

Petrograd, April 18.

A dispatch from the Headquarters Staff of the Commander in Chief says:

At the beginning of March, (Old Style,) in the principal chain of the Carpathians, we only held the region of the Dukla Pass, where our lines formed an exterior angle.  All the other passes—­Lupkow and further east—­were in the hands of the enemy.