From Petrograd to Bukarest.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 251, 16 February 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

From Petrograd to Bukarest.

By Car Through Brusilofi's War Zone.

("Tlio Daily Mirror" s-aff photographer Trith t!io Riiesian and Rumanian aim. ics describes hia recent motor tour through t'lo Eastern war zone. .Mr. Metres received th • Orcer oi : St. George Irom (iencral Brnsiloff for aiding the wounded under heavy tire.)

OF all tho £G,OCO miles or o that I ha.e covered by motor-car in Russia and Rumania since the '■ eginulng of th > war, I t i k that the t i.) of a 1 o ;t 1,100 m:lrs from Petrograd to Bukarc-t. via to so.ith-we.-te.n lront, w s pre lint lv the most int: resting, it was icrtainly my n:o.=t fatiguing niotcr journev.

lish <>f our diiver, '"T»o cows fc.l to pn COS 1" Leaving Brody we d ove, \ia Tarnoj>o(, tt. Czernovita, which fas I een occupied and re-o copied alternately by Russian ard Austrian tro i| s -ix or se en time. We were am; sod to see posters paste:! ail over tho t 'wn announf ing —"Yiit ry en All Fronts!" —'I'iiis. we fornl, was the tit le of a Geriru.n einr mato. rajih film. It bad .formed the 'S tar" portion of the programme at the last cinema show I frld in Czernovit-z before the city fell during General Sn;siJi 11"s great (dfensive. Near the lTunialiian frontier we were c'elayel by the first of those three i;un~t r.s. As oi r lyre was o-eing mended a Rumanian peasant (am© aloni, and. thinking we were R told ns, in high glee, that he 1 ud le'nIe'n a soldier anl lu d been wounded <in the Danube front. He bared 1 is arm to sfiow us t' e wound of which he was so pro d. This ilttle in ident was the hrst of ninny that reveal d the maitiil enthusiasm of the Every mjile Rumanian — yo. ni; and aged—who can possibly, stand up and Iraki a rifle in arms. All the bridges over which we drove were guarded by eld men of fro(m sixty to seventy years of age. These aged patriots were cx epti nally keen and lu sine -life. Wo coul'n't hope to be allowed ti pass until our papers had been tboorugh'y examined by one of them while the others covered us with their iitio>.

Wita mv trave ling coin, ani n, Mr. St .nl y W; slihurn, special c.»i respondent of "The Times" (uh m ihe Queen oi Rumania descrilied as one ot the mcst interesting men sho had <vir met). I le-it P.t 0,4,1 ad the day that Rumania declared v.ar, August 27, 19! G. Pr L-viously '.\e had been all over the Rirsi n south-wes'.ern fr. Nt, and we had planned to return to General B. u"iIcff'ci licadfjuarters. When Ru.iania j(i :ed th • All s, h.owe.er, wo decided to journey to Buki rest.

We had nrmcd our car "Gaspard," and wo both have a verv sentimental attachment t> tint r.iut -fire ho s - ' now r Napi r that we bought in Warsa.v from a Rus >an aviator ovir two years ago. "Gaspard' was then four years old. and liacl done, much hard d. ty in E's, Prussia. Sho had 'eon tinkered no much that a out the only : for.ion cf her oii.iii'l structure that iemained wn.; the n me-')latt>! Still. "Gas ard" co Id man»i~o an ! e sy eighty n iles an hour on a good : read. i By the way. during our ride from Pet- I rogiad to tho Rumanian i'rontirr "Gas- I paid" did not get a single puncture, t Yet, during the first thirty miles inRumania she had three 1 On our journey from Kieff to tlie front, during Brusilofi's great offensive, the mil.s-long j roe si ns o" A strian and German. pri oners formed a moNt monotonous sight. We saw many thou- : a lids in bat. lies f f 0000, and the extra- j ordinary part of it was that the Aus- ' trims se med sia cely to )c guarded at all. Tiie Gerinans, however, who ; were in t' e minority, always marched iu front of the numberless hosts and were closely watoheL ilie exphmatinn j was that the Austrians gave no troubl • alter 1 eing "lounded up." In fa t, in ore or two of the small towns we noticed that the tramwav-cars wore actually driven by Ai stria i prisoners. But the fares were collected by Rtissi n girls. As we were driving through a snia.ll village outside Kieff at di sk cue afternoon we sew, on village greoa, two Austrian prisoners^hatting hap. ily with a Ri s-ian fami'y—tlio niOther. five small children and two ''flippers.'' The Austrian* lad roses in the-r caps ai d seined ab olntely cent niel and quite merry. Our route was \l l Kieff, Rovno anl Brcdy, which l ad not lon'j; I een in Ru - sian bands. 'On tiie road ta Brod.v wo had an c xciting race for life with a German aeropliire. A favourite trick of tho Hun Taulies was to patrol the open roads leading into Brody from the front to the staff—whir up behind cars, Transports and evon ambulance wagons, Hv low ard tl en pepper t'cm with machine-pun billets. When we were six miles from Brady we sa v a Taube flying straight towards us fr mi behind, i It wa'> a ra e between "Gaspard" and \ the Hi n—and "G spare!" wen! The Hi;ii nearly caught rs up two mi'es | from tho town, however, aud shied a bcml> at i s. It mi sod our.car. fell in a field near bv, and, in t'.e I rol ea Eng-

Our fiQt night in Rumania was spent at Roman—an.l we were piomntly n>ista'<en for Russians! The rn t'i of the Ri s iins lasing through B i ain was iieing rcjjeated. Everyone 1 elieve 1 that Russian troo; s had airircd and w ere hidden somewhere! The next mo ning a hugo crowd surged round our hotel, aiul the police had the utmo t diffi ultr in precfnti'ig them from mo' birg us witli kiudnc-s as we walked clo\n the slo; s to our < ar.

TEN* AIR RAIDS IN SIXTY HOURS

We had an amusing experience the n xt day, too, when we were stopped on the road by two Rumanian s Idi rs. They asked for our pas es, and our interpreter thereupon read out our four n me.-t in R s-i in con'hiding with the oxpr. Ssien. "Bolshi Nitchivo", wl.ich means "Nothing more." However, th • soldiers thought that " Bolshi Nitchivo" was the name of another person whom they could net see. For quite a while they insist d on searching the err for this imaginary member of our party! Dining one of i c air raids en Bukarest —the:e were ten in the first sixty hour- 1 w > were there -a man was killed by a I om'i within li teen yards of our car. At Bukarest I nhotagraplied 'he King and Queen of Rumania and tho Crown Prime. My views on the situation in Rumania? Well, 1 am convinced there is good reason for optimism. My own observations and knowledge of ti:e Russian and Rumanian Armies confirm me in the l>cluf ihalTiii Rum nil we shall s _e a duplicate of tV> situation in Russia after the fall of War-aw. In my o,.'nion the Rumanians, with Russia's assist no. wi l male a fiim stand on a 'in 1 which fas i in'oiibtedly been Diepared—just as tho R ssi ns did in IDIo —anl t 1 en t'e. Allies nay antiii ate a great Rus-o-l* i mant in off, lr-ivc. G. H. ME WES.