SHORT OF OFFICERS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12617, 30 November 1926, Page 7

SHORT OF OFFICERS

SOVIET ARMY LOOKS ABROAD OFFERS MADE BRITISH EXPERTS HIGH SALARIES By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, November 28. The “Dispatch” states:—“The Soviet is secretly offering salaries from £IOOO to £ISOO yearly, and other inducements to unemployed and discontented British ex-officers, principally gunnery, aviation, and gas experts, to join the lied Army’s headquarters at Moscow, where there is a kind of Foreign Legion based on a recruiting campaign conducted quite apart from the activities of the Soviet missions abroad. “It is doubtless the outcome of a decree signed by M. Trotsky’s deputy. M. Skjliansky, ordering agents tc encourage the enlistment of foreign nationals by every means in their power. The result has been whispered approaches to ex-officers in the iSrawing-rooms of Mayfair, and in hotels, Chelsea coffee houses, and Soho.’ ’ TWO ESSENTIALS An ex-regular officer informed tho “Dispatch” : —“A Soviet agent, aware that 1 had been an outspoken critic of the War Office, and that I was also the author of a confidential memorandum on gunnery instruction, intimated that 1 would be paid a substantial amount in Paris, where a contract could be signed for the purpose of evading the Foreign Enlistment Act. The two essentials were that I spoke French and was unmarried.” SOME ALREADY THERE The “Dispatch” learns that 106 Englishmen are serving in Russia, but their pay does not exceed £4JO yearly. They are liable to all kinds of unpleasantness if they return to Britain One of the Soviet’s most prominent air experts is an Englishman. The Soviet is using principally British and Italian aircraft,, but the chemical warfare is chiefly in the hands of Germans. The Soviet badly need staff officers, the Tsarist school having been almost entirely wiped out.’t