RUSSIA’S RESERVES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1548, 9 May 1916, Page 4

RUSSIA’S RESERVES.

INCREASE OF FORCES,

The progress made in utilising Russia’s splendid manhood for the army, notably in respect of the organisation of reserve formations, is described by the Petrograd correspondent of The Times. He says that a marked improvement is noticeable in the supply of trained subalterns. To illustrate this statement he mentions that there are from 25,000 to 30,000 additional subalterns annually from one of several sources of supply. It may be asserted that the Russian Army no longer suffers any deficiency of young officers. If tiie supply of rifles could keep pace with the supply of men Russia could place several additional million trained men in the field at once.

The correspondent adds ; “While visiting the Olonets infantry, I was shown a card received from the sergeants’ mess of a British regiment bearing the same number and dated '.Depot West Yorkshires.’ The exact nature of the missive was unknown until my arrival, as none of the officers were conversant with English, but they guessed it, and the whole regiment were hugely pleased that their British comrades had remembered them. One officer said to me, ‘We were then expecting to go into action, and I can tell you this card immensely bucked us up.’ “The exchange of kindly messages between the Allied regiments initiated some years ago between the French and Russian armies should be revived, and would certainly lie much appreciated. It would be better still if regiments exchanged officers. Scarcely any of the unils I visited during the past three weeks has ever seen a British uniform. Almost nothing is known here about our army. The Russian newspapers are uninformed, and are practically not available. We ought to send some officers knowing Russian to serve with the regiments and invite an exchange of Russian officers knowing English. “Prisoners here have been saying for some lime past that it is a long time since they had tasted sugar or eaten their till of bread. They do not know fresh meat or hot food, being sustained almost entirely by tinned foods. The Austrians unanimously testify thpt their services are exhausted, and even railwayman of serviceable ages are being enrolled, their places being taken by older men. The comparison between the conditions in the respective camps is sufficiently great to warrant the fullest, confidence in our eventual success in this theatre.”