RUSSIA'S STRENGTH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 704, 16 September 1914, Page 6

RUSSIA'S STRENGTH.

A VAST EMPIRE. One of the most reliable, a*jd certainly one of the most readable of tbs books written by Englishmen who have travelled in Russia, is that written by Mr Henry Norman, M.P., a parliamentarian with a penchant for facts and figures, and ye: with sufficient imagination and sympathy to infuse life into the recital of BUch exact information aa he is able to secure. In bis book, 'All the Russias," the fruit of four journeyß and thirty thousand miles of travel in the Russian Empire, Mr Norman sums up bis impressions very vividly and forcibly. IMMENSITY OP AREA. He dwells upon the immensity of area, made more impressive because that area is not scattered, as in the case of the British Empire, and not divided up into kingdoms, dependencies and colonies. "The great Russian mystery," he says, "is how all this is governed from the city on the Neva. The world has never known such centralisation." Another aspect which has greatly impressed Mr Norman's opinion iB the great variety of races. There are the Poles, the Finns, the Persians, the Circassians, the Mingrelianß, the Mussulmans, the Great Russians, the Little Russians, the Cossacks of the Don, the Cossacks of the Mais, even Germans and Greeks (and, of course, Jews) under the domination of the Czar. This complexity of nationalities should in the ordinary nature of things make for final disintegration, but Mr Norman could see no signs of tendencies in that direction* "WHAT SHE WANTS SHE TAKES." The corporate and executive strength of Russia, nowever, is a subject on which the author waxes enthusiastic. 'He says: "Russia is indescribably strong. Her strength makes you nervous. It is like being in the next field. With a red golf jacket on, to an angry young bull. The bull does not realise that the gate is there to stop uim—therefore it will not stop him. Russia walks rough-shod over and through obstacles that an older, a more civilised and more self-consci-ous country would manoeuvre around for half a century. She wants Siberia—she takes it. She wants Central Asia —she takes it. . . She wants Persia —we shall see." "LIVE ON A CHINAMAN'S RATIONS." After touching upon the strong financial position of Russia as evidenced in the enormous expenditures, cheerfully undertaken, in erecting magnificent public buildings, completing the Siberian railway, and pushing on strategic railways to the German frontier, to the Austrian frontier, and in the direction of Galicia, Mr Norman goes on to say that he was struck by the "inexhaustible masses of the common people." "They are physically vigorous," he says, "they can live on a chinaman's daily expenditure, they are wholly illiterate, wholly superstitious, absolutely obedient, even to death, to what they are told is the will of the Czar, and they are increasing in numbers at an astounding pace." At this stage the descriptive writer mood id dropped, and Mr Norman becomes again a parliamentarian and indulges in a few statistics. He says that between 1851 and 1897 the population of the Russian Empire increased 92 per csnt., the population in 1897 being 123,211,113.

"WE CAN LOOSE 100,000 OF THESE." Continuing in more eaßy vein Mr Norman states that recruits are taken for the army whenever and wherever they are needed. "If a couple of hundred thousand of them nre needed to increase the army, they weep and go (Recruits may be seen with a band of straw twisted round the arm to show them which is their right hand) If they mußt he sacrificed in shoals to win a battle, well, they are never missed except each group in its own village, and not much there." As in China, evidently flesh and blood are cheap in Russia. A Russian officer who was walking with Mr Norman through a barrack square, dißousaing the relations of England and Russia, asked him, "Do vou know why we should always beat you in the end?" As he spoke they came up to a sentry standing rigid at the salute. The officer answered his own question by touching the man on the breast and remarking, "Because we can lose a hundred thousand of these without feeling it in any way." The remark was brutal, and characteristic of the atavistic side of the Muscovite character, but it was undoubtedly true. For the officers in their military cap-

acity Mr Norman has high praise, as men imbued with a whole hearted interest in their work and never-flag-ging enthusiasm. The author's remarks on the industrial and commercial outlook in Russia, though interesting, are too lengthy to be readily condensed. It may be stated, however, that despite the rapid growth of population upon which he touches, his impression ia that the products uf the empire, both in the way oS foodstuffs and raw manufacturnig material, are, and will for a great many years continue to be, considerably in excess of the needs of thin great nation. ACCURATE FORECASTS. Mr Norman's book was written a little over a decade ago, hut his summing up on International relationships as they affected Russia ia almost prophetic in its accuracy. He states that trouble might ba expected through Russian with Austria's tacitly accepted protectorate over Servia, insists strongly upon the existence of a strong basia for continued friendship between Britain and Russia, and prophesies a strengthening of the bonds between Russia and France (who had then been in definite alliance for some years.) IS IT A PROPHECY? All this was written befor« the Balkan war; before even the RussoJapanese war, and the soundness of the reasoning inspires truHt in Mr Norman's other conclusions, but it must be admitted that in one respect the author's prophetic should lead him astray, unless there be a certain grim humour wrapped up in the following sentence: — "I do not think it unreasonable to supDOse that some d»y the Kaiser will succeed in hia earnest desire- to visit Paris, and from that moment the Dual Alliance (France and Russia) will possess only an antiquarian interest."