ON THE GALICIAN BATTLEFRONT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2801, 20 June 1916, Page 5

ON THE GALICIAN BATTLEFRONT

SIGHTS, SOUNDS/AND MUD

ESPECIALLY MUD '

,3y Hamilton Ityfo, the "Daily Mail's" Special Correspondent witli the itussiah Army.)

Somewhere in Galicia.-.-Until I camo <l.o\vn to .Galicia I did not know what,mud was. I thought I knew, but.l was mistaken." How we are able to motor through it, .how : the Rus- ' sinn transport columns manage to deliver punctually to the- troops;,their daily rations 1 cannot yet understand. The ' Austrian transport appears to : have foil--.-: ed badly! I saw a prisoner a lew .days ago, captured._in a, skirmish ;tho" night j • before. He said lie was hungry. He ate as if lie had been half-starved. For eome days, lie complained, food had been, very - scarce. A quarter of a pound of' meat and twelve ounces of bread a day, with a tiny screw of colfee, no lhilk,.and a. tammo allowance of sugar, are poop ;enough subsistence iii damp trenches. AIL the men are, of courso,, praying for sunshine and dry earth; but tho Russian troops are far better, off-'than their,..op-'-, ponents. X have several times come upon field kitchens by chance, <and,. found' the meat soup first rate, both/intasteyand l ill \ its. nourishing quality. -They- •' get daily three pounds of very good bread ' (afaiu 1 speak from • experience);. and their kasha"" (barley or buckwheat porridge cooked with scraps of bacon)'is a' savoury dish, which I intend to introduce into.my own household. Tea they' drink in large -Quantities, very weak, with at least three lumps of sugar in every glass. ■ ■ . result of good and regular feeding is evident in the appearance of:-•'the' • troops, despite the depressing greynees of the sky, the perpetual drizzle, and the quite, exceptional character Of Galician mud. I havo noticed particularly the difference between the magnificently resonant way? in which'the'troops at the front'sing their* marching gongs and the mechanical madc-to-order sound which those -songs have far in tho rear —at- » Petrograd or < Moscow, for example. I mentioned this to a regimental officer as we -watched the. men of two of his companies tramping back 4 from tho trenches, to their billets in a half-ruined Tillage, which they had patched up most clever•l.Y ia- their handy way. , , he said, "that ie quite natural • Here it is "their souls which sing. .

Gentle and Friendly Folk.> Tho poetical phraso came to the lips Jwrly Russian colonel lp'thoufc the siignrest aficetation. There was nothine poetical in it to .his wind.-x ll© was speaking what seemed to \vni to be the literal truth, and I believo it is the literal truth. Our soldiers sing with a more careless jollity,' tho French- soldier with •a gayer humour. In-the singing of the luissiaii there is a ring of deeper feeling, a note .which reaches, tho springs of aiL eentiwen't. -

Hoiv the idea ever took root in Wcst®**n Europe that Russians were harsh and brutal I-cannot imagine. They are, m truth, the gentlest and friendliest folk. Living,'■ as\[ am living now, with' the Army, passing from one staff or regimental niess. to another, "turning ■up".suddenly with a cool request for food and lodgment, demanding tho loan now of a horse,' a guiae, I have found the Russian officers, from highest to. lowest; kinder and more considerate', than' I can say. Their essential gentleness of nature is proved afresh, by their behaviour to the local population of this Austrian territory. The peasants aro doing their work us usual. Within sound oi the guns they, are manuring - fields, harrowing,.seeding,: tending their gardens, going to market, <just as-if therq were no war.", I passed' yesterday any number of carts coming away from a big Monday morning horse fair: Tho scene sent my thoughts to Ireland. '

The rolling country, tho pigs tied by one leg, the buxom faces of the lasses,the shrewd "queer" look of the older men, the lowering sky and .quietly persistent rain all helped to strengthen tho resemblance. The cottages here are tidier than in Injland, very , iveatly thatched aud mostly with their walls distempered a light blue. The people, too, have a more distinctivetmd therefore in our eyes a more picturesque' costiimc. They look like peasants out -of an opera. . They 'wear straw hats with wide -brims- (giving them father a look of Harrow schoolboys). Their coats are "braided in gay colours and ornamented with "pompoms" like those oh a pierrot blouse. All the women wear-topboots (and in the mud they need them), .with-bright-hued skirts and with kerchiefs: over their heads, framing pretty; face's in a fascinating fashion and lending even plain faces n momentary charm. -

Night Motoring Feelings; All appear to be on;.excellent terns with >the Russian Army. They ;§alute officers with a friendly, smile. - The sol-. diers are adopted into their families at , once. These are not German. Austrians, you must remember. • They • are, racially more akin to tlie Russians than to their Teutonic "over-lords. Their language belongs.. to . the . same » 7 faintly as Russian., Therefore' they have no great reason for resenting tho -occnpuuon of their country. . Many, indeed, welcoino it, for they can sell their 1 ' produce at a handsome profit and worK for good wage 3 at road-making or railway construction. The Russians are ■ < buS»in both these directions.,./.; .

Their engineers * have taken energetic, measures to conquer the" mud- ■ difficulty, -■ •*; and have done very well. - : .Many, new .lines of railway have been laid down.' Bridges'blown . up by. the. Austrians,_ which carried existing railways over riv-\ ers or chasms, have been .rebuilt in the most skilful and rapid way by making the "piles" of tree-trunks instead of brick or masonry. Only Russians with their cleverness in nsing the axe. could have done such work as this. AYTierever floods sweep away part of _ a line an emergency gang of workers, is organised niid the damage very swiftly repaired. . Floods come out 1 with very, slijjht provo- '' cation in Galicia, for the surface water .' hero Is only a few feet-below l the 50i1.;.;--' I passed about a hundred shell holes tliis morning which were only made tu'ree days ago. All .were half-full of > water; not rain water, but surface water. Even in ordinary times Galicia is, for tliis reason, the'muddiest country in Europe, and its mud has a peculiar sqiiSax, sticky character.', quite Vof , its own. ; (Now .this character is highly-in- / lensified. .-.When I arrived the .other,'.evening at a-certain staff headquarters tlie General asked me what I thought of the road: ' I said I'had not noticed any. road. He laughed and replied, "Recollect this. More traffic passes along these highways now evory day than passed a'oug them in a hundred years -before the war." The result' is mud beyond the comprehension of mankind. Motoring at night you can. imagine, if you close your eyes, that you are.on ij'aril ship in. an unquiet sea. There is - not only a rolling, plunging motion; - 'uiero Is a reguTar swish-swish of water,, just as one hears it against the side of a' ship. Stand still for a few moments and your feet begin to sink. It takes . an effort to pull them out of the mud. Impossible. I think, to imagine warfare under less encouraging conditions,' ami it is the best possib'e testimony to the good' physical condition and to the sobd spirits of the Russian soldiers that tliey stand them so surprisingly , well.