RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 192, 10 May 1940, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current

Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

If we understand the position, our wool check is down by 90,090 bales and our wool cheque up by over one and a-half millions.

Investors in a Tasmanian “Consultation,” it is reported, are having their money returned. Well, anyway, that’s better than most expected.

American naval experts are demanding that their navy be built to the limit, The sky is the limit we understand.

News comes from Russia that Voroshilov, Defence Commissar, has been superseded. No doubt these shuffles and changes in the Russian high command will come as no surprise to the remnants of the Russian High Command that are left. Death and wounds in action cannot be nearly so deadly or uncertain as death, disgrace and other unspecified attacks from within. Since 1937 the Russian Army has been withstanding severe attacks from inside, and it would seem that these attacks have not yet abated. Just what Stalin is getting at has never been revealed. Either there has been a colossal lack of judgment in the selection of highly placed military officials or Stalin believes in the maxim of killing off one or two daily to encourage the others. Whatever be the reasons for this strange twist of military readiness, the fact remains that the method is calculated to reduce army morale and efficiency to zero. Judging .by the Finnish campaign, Stalin very nearly succeeded in doing so. It was not military leadership that won the campaign but big battalions.

As long ago as 1937 reports from Russia suggested that all was not well with her military machine despite propaganda regarding its might. No less than three marshals out of five were shot as a result of courtmartials. The eight generals who had passed sentence, however, were not to get off free. Six of them were subsequently shot in their turn. Encouraged by these results, Stalin thereupon took steps to wipe out every regional commander. Some idea of the chaos that must now result may be had from the fact that by the beginning of 1939 there were only five original members left out of the 80 that had formed the War Council a year or two before. Moreover, ninety per cent, of the political commissars have been removed, many of them being shot. These commissars are given the curious task of spying on the military authorities in order to reassure Stalin that the military authorities are doing their job and not entering politics. They were much in evidence in the Finnish campaign.

Stalin was not content to stop when he had shot the highest military commanders. The scheme was so successful that he started on the lower officer ranks when there were no high ranks left. For that reason, since 1937 13 out of 19 commanders of armies were shot or sent to prison for life, Out of 85 corps commanders 15 were shot. Commanders of divisions then felt the pressure, some 110 of them going -down out of a total of 195. In this way Stalin neatly disposed of about 150 officers holding ranks of major general and higher. If we add the toll taken on Brigade commanders, half of the total of 406 being shot, over 750 officers with the rank of colonel or higher have been “disposed” of by Stalin in 3 years. The result is that the Russian army in the last three years has lost twothirds of its general staff and half the total of officers of other ranks. This makes a grand total of 30,000 shot. The “wastage" made it necessary to promote captains to command divisions and so on. While the scheme appears to be good for promotions, it is far from good for the Russian war machine. * # *

The problem of officers is always a difficult one in any country, especially when war threatens. The Russians, however, were by no means free from this problem before they started their purge. In 1937 Russia had about 45,000 officers in her armies. Something like 15,000 of these were unable to read or write properly. Moreover, the fundamental education required was so scanty in many instances it was found that instruction was impossible until the officers had gone back lo school for several years. Elementary algebra, geometry and trigonometry, such as is taught to any New Zealand schoolboy, bad been omitted from the education of these officers. This problem. serious as it is, has an even more serious effect when it is necessary for an army to expand. The useful expansion of any armed force depends on an adequate supply of officers. This holds good even in a place like Russia were all men are supposed to be equal. It is probable that, despite the hundreds of millions of people in Russia, the Russian army can never expand into a force of more than 6,000,000. This total, moreover, does not represent the army fit to engage a powerful civilized enemy. * * * If the Russian army was given a nasty rap on the neck, the Russian air force in its turn is confronted with all manner of difficult problems. Andrei Nicolaiev Toupolev, the man who designed the Russian aeroplanes and created the airforce has been shot er otherwise removed. His have gone with him after 15 years of expert co-operation. Russia is in no position to waste her aviation experts, because there are no others to take their place. Indeed, home-grown engineering specialists of all sorts are very rare in Russia. This purge of aviation specialists is already producing its effects. Whereas pursuit planes have advanced in speeds up to 380 miles an hour elsewhere, the top speeds in Russia are still 300 miles an hour. The same factors are operating in other lines of machines. Indeed, stagnation appears to have sot in for lack of experts to tackle the problems. One must add, moreover, that, similar thorough purges have taken place in the Russian Navy. 1n.1937 a dozen key men in the navy were shot and, since then, officers of lower ranks have been “disposed” of in the name manner. Moreover, naval designers and shipping designers generally have been bumped off to such a degree it will be years before Russia can be considered to be in a position to replace tonnage lost by wear and tear, and perhaps in other ways.

“I should be pleased if you could oblige me some time with the dates of outstanding naval events in this war so far,” savs “R.G.” “I kept a record in the last war and find them quite interesting to look over now. _ I thought I would do the same again this time but have not been able to pick up all the dates. The particulars required would be as follows: Courageous, sunk by Üboat. Graf Spee engaged by Ajax, Achilles. Salmon sinks German cruiser”). (Reports of these events lirs! appeared in “The Dominion’' on the 'oilowing dates:—Sept. 19, 1939; Dee. 14. 1939; Dec. 19, 1939.1