Bringing home a realisation of the fact that British troops are now at the front, the first casualty list in connection with the Expeditionary Force was issued yesterday.
Happily the list is a light one. It includes only five names, though four of them are the names of officers. In four cases out of the five, it is clear that the casualty was not sustained in action. Two officers have been injured in a motor-car accident and an officer of the Royal Flying Corps and a mechanic have been killed.
Of definite news from the front there is very little, but that may be due more to the reticence of the authorities than to the absence of activity. Indeed, there are indications that heavy fighting has been in progress.
Our Special Correspondent at Brussels says that on Tuesday evening a big fight was raging at Tirlemont - a town almost half-way between Brussels and Liége. At Liége itself it is officially declared that the position remains the same, and that the forts are still holding out.
An official communication declares that "all incursions towards Brussels seem definitely to have stopped," and that "the situation remains excellent."
From the Alsace region the news is equally scanty, but all accounts confirm the decisiveness of the French successes.
The fighting at Dinant on Saturday is now known to have been very severe, and to have had considerable importance for the tactical situation. The gallantry of the French troops was conspicuous.
From several quarters come circumstantial accounts of the brutality of the German soldiery both to non-combatants and to the wounded on the field. One Correspondent describes their conduct as "outrageous." The full story is given of the insulting treatment to which the British Consul at Danzig was exposed by the Germans. From Tokyo come complaints that Japanese residents in Germany have been ill-treated and insulted.
As to the recent battle on the Austro-Servian frontier at Shabatz, an official report from Nish says that the battle endured for two days, and ended in the Austrians' strongly entrenched position being carried by storm. Three Austrian regiments were annihilated, and 14 guns and large quantities of munitions were captured.
A St. Petersburg message reports heavy Austrian losses in recent frontier fighting. In Rome news has been received that the Russians have invaded Bukovina, of which Czernowitz is the capital; and that half a million troops are concentrated on this frontier.
An idea of the extent of the line of operations on the Russian frontier may be gathered from the fact that the distance from Eydtkuhnen, where a German attack has been repulsed, to Vladimir Volynsk, where the Austrian cavalry were encountered on the 16th, is 300 miles. Another action, that took place on the 17th, near Bessarabia, is 180 miles further away still.
With regard to the reported German victories on the Russian frontier, our St. Petersburg Correspondent laconically remarks that "Russia is in the occupation of the scenes of these victories."
There is silence as to naval operations in the North Sea; but the Official Press Bureau yesterday published an account of the circumstances in which the Amphion was lost on August 6. It appears that it was when the Amphion was on her return course, after sinking the mine-layer Königin Luise, that she struck a mine. Captain Fox speaks in high terms of the behaviour of the officers and men on the occasion.
As to the naval engagement in the Adriatic, the Austrian Government, while denying the account given by the Montenegrins, who spoke of the loss of four warships, admits that a small, cruiser is missing.
On Tuesday the Emperor and Empress of Russia presented themselves in State at the Kremlin of Moscow, and, after receiving addresses, were enthusiastically cheered by vast crowds.
Our Correspondent at Rome, in a communication sent by post and dated August 10th, explains that the vast majority of the Italian people are in favour of neutrality, but that there is a party in the Army, and especially on the General Staff, which is working for intervention on behalf of Austria and Germany. Tempting offers have been made to induce Italy so to intervene.
Similar offers have been made by Germany to Greece, our Athens Correspondent reports.
The offers included the gift of Servian Macedonia and all the AEgean Islands. Rejection of the offer was made easy by discovery of the fact that the islands had also been offered to Turkey.
The Prince of Wales's National Relief Fund yesterday afternoon reached the total of £1,315,000.
An account of what the Government have done in organising the relief of distress is published to-day.
Australians in London met yesterday to set up an Australian War Contingent Association.
Our Correspondent in Paris sends an account of a conversation with one of the twelve French Army airmen who have been in Brussels assisting the Belgian Army. The officer mentioned that twice he had been as far as Cologne and Coblentz.
Further official "war news from Berlin, besides announcing a great victory over the Russians, mentions that the leaders of the British Labour Party, "Ramsay and Macdonald," spoke strongly against England's intervention in the war.