WONDERFUL COSSACKS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3979, 12 July 1915, Page 2

WONDERFUL COSSACKS.

A recent cable gives details of a German rout in Galicia in which the Russian Cossacks took part. 'Writing of this force lately a correspondent at the Russian front stated, “Small are the horses and very lean, with a curious nutty color. Only the foro hoofs are shot. Their quick short steps pick at the earth like the dry rattle of hail. The men’s long lances are fixed to the right foot. 'They reach the enemy’s lines; their ranks open out, they thrust, they bend flat on their horses’ backs, they pass as lightning in an indescribable chaos of blows, of snouting, of mad cries of horses. And then . . . an earth strewn with struggling wounded, with silent dead. Ordered at the right moment there is nothing in the world that can resist Cossack charge! The Austrians have indeed captured some of thes'o Cossack horses. They can do nothing with them. Admirable instruments of war in the hands of their proper masters, they will do nothing without the older of the familiar voice. The Cossack has forged into his weapon a loyalty almost unbelievable.” The Cossacks are a peculiar military confederacy, holding, by tenure of military service, a considerable urea of land in the south-west of Russia, and with a military' organisation of their own. The Don Cossacks give their name to a province of 03,000 square miles, with a population of 3,700,000, hut not all these are Cossacks. There aro settlements of Cossacks in the Ukraino, along the Lower Volga, in Caucasia, in Siberia, and elsewhere in the Russian Empire. They furnish to the Russian army a large contingent of light cavalry, who endure with great patience, fatigue, hunger, thirst and cold. Tim young Cossacks, on reaching the ag“ •■f if), are trained for two years at their homes. At the age of 21 they enter the “first category” regiments of their districts, in which they- remain for four years. They then pass to the “second category” regiment for four years, and then to the “third category” regiments for a like term. The "first category” regiments are permanently embodied, and may be employed in any parts of the Empire. In the regiments of the “second category” the men live at home, but retain their equipment and horses; in the “third category” they' have their equipment but no horses, and during both these terms they are called out for three weeks’ training every' year. After this there is a period of five years in the reserve. Besides this, every Cossack, no matter what his age, may he called out in ease of emergency to assist in the national defence. Tim origin of tlio Cossacks is doubtful ■ they are first hoard of in the Ukraine and along the lower Don in the 10th century, and seem to have been a people of mixed race, a mixture of Slavonic, with Tartar and Finnish elements. Later, when Red Russia was conquered by Poland, numerous Russian refugees tied to the Cossack countrv, and the same thing occurred when the Inr tar hordes of the .successors of Zenghis Khan overran Muscovv. The Cossacks distinguished themselves in war against the Tartars and tho Turks, and in tho loth century became known as a . powerful military confederacy. The Kings of Roland an 1 tho Czars of Russia in succession employed them largely to defend their frontiers against the ’Turks and the nomadic hordes of 'Tartars, and tlmy slill hold the outposts of Russian authority in Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasia. It was mainly the Cossacks who conquered Siberia for Russia. The Cossacks have generally been regarded in Western Europe as fierce savages, hut they seem to make a very favorable impression on stran«--ors who have dwelt among them. Many travellers agree in asserting that in intelligence, cleanliness, and enterprise they aro a good deal superior to the average Russian.” The Russian, Lieutenant-Colonel Roustan Bek, writing in the “London Daily Express,” gives an account of some remarkable Cossack infantry, the Plastuns :—-“In some Caucasian regions close to the north-eastern shores of the Black Sea, as well as in the regions of Kuban and Terek, there aro certain Cossacks, part of whom have never been horsemen. They wear the Circassian uniform and for centuries have been the best hunters of Russia. A Plustun has no rival either as a shot or in his capacity to approach the object of his attack noiselessly and unnoticed. His ability in this direction is so wonderful that e\on when you know whore he is lading you cannot find him. From childhood tho Pin stuns aro accustomed to rambling in the woods and on the mountains, armed only with a big knife, and very often meeting wild beasts and lighting at close quarters with them. To catch a sitting bird with the hands is an easy thing for a Plastun. His eyo is as sharp as the eyo of a homing pigeon—tho furthestsighted bird in nature—his ear is so sensitive that a saving exists among the Cossacks: ‘When a Plastun is listening ho can hear how the grass is growing.’ The ability of tho Plastuns can be compared with that of some tribes of North American Red Indians or the Gurkhas of India. During the conquest of the Caucasus, as well as during the Russo-Turkish war, the Plastuns proved their ability as the best scouts of the whole Russian Army, and the headquarters staff was fully informed oven about movements in the, rear of tho enemy. Tho Plastun© became a terror for tho outposts, whom they cot off with extreme simplicity, and often brought back alive.”