Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/538

498 N. of Brest Litovsk as far as the line Saki-Poliszcze, and by hard fighting drove out the Russian rearguard. In the IV. Army, portions of the XXXVII. and XLI. Honved Infantry Divs. had occupied a sort of bridge-head position E. of Kam- ieniec Litowsk on the Lesna. The main body of the army (the VIII. and XVII. Corps) concentrated at Monaczki and Zad- vvorzany in readiness to withdraw bodily from the front as soon as its troops stationed E. of the Lesna should be relieved.

The fall of the Brest Litovsk fortress and the simultaneous capture of Bialystok by the German VIII. Army compelled the main force of the Russian N'.W. front to retreat.

The A ustro-Hungar ian I. Army's Offensive at Kovel (Kowel). The arrival of the reinforcements transferred from the IV. Army (the IX., X., and XIV. Corps) to the I. Army gave the signal for a renewed offensive advance by the I. Army. If an advance in the direction of Kovel were made, and the Russians were driven E. and W., the result would be to divide the Russian N.W. from the S.W. front. The impassableness of the Polcsie, lying between the two fronts, was an appreciable aid to this separation. The offensive was opened on the igth against the Russian XXXI. and IV. Cavalry Corps by Heydebreck's Cavalry Corps, of which the Austro-Hungarian IV. Cavalry Div. reached the Dubienka area and the XI. Honved Cavalry Div. the locality of Luboml. On the 2oth, in a further advance, the German V. Cavalry Div. reached Bobly, and the Austro-Hungarian IV. and XI. Olesk and Ruda, while infantry detachments of the IX., X., and XIV. Corps followed, moving concentrically up to Mokrec and Luboml.

On the following day the Russian XXXI. Corps took up a position to meet them on the line Turyjsk-Nowosiolka-Ruda, whereupon the whole II. Infantry Div. was brought forward to Solowicze. On the 22nd, together with the Cavalry Corps, it engaged in fierce fighting at Maciejowa and Turyjsk, and drove back the XXXI. Corps on Kovel. The main body of the Russian XXXI. Corps attempted to join the Russian III. Army to the N. by v/ay of the Pripet. The Russian IV. Cavalry Corps was aiming at a similar junction through Kamien Kaszyrskiy. In their retreat the Russians had undertaken a regrouping of the N.W. front's S. wing in the area N. and S. of Polesie. The XIII. Army, which had been fighting on the S. wing, was disbanded. The army command with three of the corps were transferred to other fronts, and the remaining four corps incorporated with the III. Army defending Brest Litovsk.

On the 24th the German V. Cavalry Div. and the Hungarian XI. Honved Cavalry Div. took up the pursuit to the N., the IV. Cavalry Div. to the east. The separation of the N.W. from the S.W. front had been accomplished. Up to the end of Aug., Mackensen, who after the fall of the fortress had again been placed under the Supreme Army Command, carried the pursuit up to Kobryn and Pruzany; Prince Leopold of Bavaria's and Hindenburg's S. wing (the XII. and VIII. Armies) advanced along the roads to Wolkowica and Grodno on to the line Pruzany-Jalowka-Nowinka Nowydwor and Sopockinie, and the Austro-Hungarian armies attacked the S.W. front together with the German S. Army.

On the 25th the Austro-Hungarian IX. Corps of the I. Army had begun an enveloping advance against the N. wing of the Russian VIII. Army. On the 26th their offensive was in full swing. The XIV. Corps and the IV. Cavalry Div. advanced on Zydyczyn from Kovel, the IX. and X. Corps won the area N. and N.W. of Lokaczyn by fighting, and Szurmay's N. wing crossed the Bug at Markostaw. By the end of Aug. the main body of the Archduke Josef Ferdinand's army, which had been set at liberty N. of Brest Litovsk, had been brought over to the N. wing of the I. Army. On the arrival of the army command, the two armies, under the Archduke's Higher Command, continued the offensive begun by Puhallo against Luck and Dubno. The advance which followed, with which the II. and Southern Armies were associated in their attack across the Zlota Lipa, led to the Rovno campaign. (E. J.)

BRETON, JULES ADOLPHE AIME LOUIS (1827-1905), French painter (see 4.501), died in 1905.

BRIAND, ARISTIDE (1862- ), French statesman (see 4.515). Few men in France had gained so much in political knowledge, ability and influence, during the 15 years preceding 1921, as Aristide Briand. The year of the separation of Church and State (1905) marked his entry into the ranks of the coming men in France. His tolerant interpretation of that measure, his desire to bring about a cessation of the bitter strife between old Radicals and the growing body of men who, while remaining Conservative, nevertheless accepted the Republic, marked him out as a man capable of interpreting the signs of the times. At the age of 59 Briand had been seven times prime minister of France. He was first Minister of Public Instruction in the Sarrien Ministry of 1906, and maintained that portfolio in the succeeding Clemenceau Government until Jan. 1908, when, still under Clemenceau, he became Minister of Justice, a portfolio which he resigned to become prime minister on July 24 1909. After a reshuffle he continued as prime minister from Nov. 3 1910 until Feb. 27 1911. He again took office as Minister of Justice in the Ministry formed by Raymond Poincare on Jan. 14 1912. He followed Poincare as prime minister between Jan. 21 1912 and Feb. 18 1913, and retained that office under Poincare's presidency until March 18 1913. He was Minister of Justice in the Viviani war Cabinet from Aug. 26 1914 until Oct. 29 1915, when he again became prime minister, remaining in office until March 20 1917. He succeeded Georges Leygues as prime minister on Jan. 16 1921. (See FRANCE: History.)

By his eloquence and the suavity of his manner Briand earned for himself many soothing nicknames, such as the " charmer," the " siren " and the " endormeur." He had in his command a voice of pleasing resonance and yet capable of humour, and a wealth of gesture and a knowledge of histrionics acquired from his friend the great actor Antoine. These, with a handsome and dominating personality lightened by a very ready and supple intelligence, explain his countless successes at the tribune. They were reinforced by statesmanlike qualities of courage and firmness, and a proper appreciation of the right moment at which to strike or to stroke recalcitrant sections of the com- munity. M. Briand struck hard when, in 1910, he mobilized the railwaymen and thus put an end to the most grave labour trouble that had yet threatened France. Leaving far behind him the bitter doctrines of class warfare from which he started, Briand, in speeches at Perigueux St. Chamond, appealed to the country to breathe the atmosphere of appeasement, to accept the clerical struggle as over, and to work unitedly on sane measures of social reform. He was, in these utterances, seeking to create a centre party of moderate Republican sentiment. The constant labour troubles and the dangerous pandering to the greed of labour which had marked previous Radical administrations made his task easy. It was upon this Republican centre that Briand based his majority. His chief work was done during the World War. He succeeded Viviani at a time of considerable difficulty. The first battle of the Marne had been won, but the second was still to come. He had ambitious desires to bring about the unification of allied war effort which Clemenceau and events alone had the power to achieve. It was under his influence that the first steps towards coordination were taken. He had to fight against the French Parliament's desire to play a greater part in the conduct of the war than that to which it was entitled. He had also to support in conference against British representatives the claims of the Salonika expedition. As Minister of Foreign Affairs he was largely responsible for the entry of Rumania into the war. In 1921 France gave him her confidence as being exceptionally qualified, by suppleness of character and firmness in argument, to maintain her claims for national security amid the difficulties encountered in enforcing the Peace Treaty. He attended the Disarmament Conference at Washington in Nov. 1921, and stated the case for his country. (G. A.)

BRIDGE, AUCTION (see 4:531). As the game of Bridge had succeeded Whist among card-players, so in turn after 1908-10 did the first form of simple or " straight " Bridge give way to Auction Bridge but the second step was the more complete, for