RUSSIAN MOBILISATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1287, 20 August 1914, Page 4

RUSSIAN MOBILISATION.

The weakness of the Russian Army has always been in slowness in mobilising. The total strength available in Russia and Siberia is said to be 5,400,000, but in mobilising, vast distances have to be covered which are poorly served by railways. After the Russo-Japanese war a reorganisation was effected with a view to enabling Russia to strike quicker. The hasty concentration of all available strength in Poland—the most vulnerable portion of the whole Empire—would mean the abandonment at the outset of all the natural defences of the country. It was, therefore, decided that preliminary concentration of the Russian masses should take place on the line of two rivers, the Dwina and Dnieper, represented by the three main points—Dunaberg, Witebsk and Kieff. It has been a matter of keen speculation how long complete Russian mobilisation would take, the more especially as it was supposed-—and judging by the event, rightly that Germany would first of all throw her main strength against France, hoping to over-run that country before the Russian hosts could move. A great deal of importance therefore attaches to the cable that Russia fias completed her mobilisation, two millibn men being disposed on the German border, two million on the Austrian border, the remainder protecting other parts of the frontier. A recent English writer held that it would be the thirtieth day before Russian troops could be a serious factor in the war, and that by the thirty-fourth of thirty-fifth day 13 army corps might bo frVftiteblg ngginst Qermany, If the cable published recently is correct mobilisation has taken just half the time anticipated by this writer. Germany declared war against Russia on the Ist inst., and a partial mobilisation of the Russian forces was then in progress. The rapidity of the Russian concentration jg certain t 9 have a considerable effect on the war. It makes unworkable the plan of throwing all available German troops, except a small containing army, against France first, leaving Russia to be dealt with afterwards.