LANCERS GREET COSSACKS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 July 1917, Page 3

LANCERS GREET COSSACKS.

ALLIES -MEET IN WILDS OF MESOPOTAMIA.

RUSSIANS HARD MARCH

(From Edward Candler)

KIZIL ROB AT (via Baghdad), April 2. At noon to-day we met the Russians at Kizil Robat. Th e officer commanding °nr column seeing their cavalry with blue and white pennant, called up the Indian Lancers, who pushed forward, wheeled line, saluted and turned back, bringing tho Russians into camp. Our Allies hadi a hard task from Hatnadan, through an inhospitable country over snow passes trodden into the consistency of ice, down into the burning heat of ravines, but they pressed hard on tho heels of the I'm k • The road all th e way was a defile between sn°w-clad ranges, which made a turning movement almost impossible. Henc e there was .no opportunity of rounding up the Turkish rearguard, but, owing to tho relentless pressure of the pursuit, tbe enemy suffered heavy losses in the retreat through artillery lire, sickness, and exhaustionAll th e way tho road was littered with dead mules, horses, camels, asses and buffaloes. The Turks’ ranks were thinned by typhus, and their infantry wero footsore, their light Hamadan boots lasting a few days, and most of them were barefotted. The villages are full of deserters. The, country between Kotmanshah ami Khanikin is an uninhabited waste.

seven armies hav e passed through it in ten months.. Villages are abandoned, and supplies do not exist even in s " tricts which aro least exhausted.. The two armies were dependent on a country that could barely support a brigade. Many Turks fell from exbastion, and the cemeteries of every village show signs of new graves. b,ear > 2000 wer 0 counted at Hermans m t alone

.COSSACKS AT LI'NCH. At lunch we drank the health of the Russian Army. A motor - convoy hroucrht in bully beef rations, biscuits, jam,"and dates for the Cossack squadron- The Cossacks, a hard, weatherbeaten every crowd, were soon fraternising with out troops. T I<? y with short stirrups, toes down, heeis up, leaning forward, their weight thrown on the stirrups, lhcy wo,<= iacithoots and sheepskin caps. resides their rifles they carried knives and curved Caucasian scimitars, a «*, **_> horses, which mostly are under _ hands, being heavily laden and looking • thin and spent. f . Persia is now clear of th e ' iurts.