STUBBORN RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 12, 15 January 1916, Page 3

STUBBORN RUSSIA.

AND HER GRIM RESOLVE. TO TROUNCE THE TEUTON. A WONDERFUL NATION. (BY H. HAMILTON FYFE). It is just a year since I came to Russia aften ten eventful weeks in France. Came to find the Russian people rejoicing over the Grand Duke's victory before' Warsaw. Came to encounter the belief on all sides that the war would be over and the Germans beaten •within a few months. After fifteen months of the severest

I campaigning which an army has ever I been called upon to endure, the Rus- ' sian soldierV name stands in the estimation of all who know him higher than it stood before. He has not the quick intelligence of the French poilu, nor the stolid, cynical cheerfulness of our men, who do not know what downheartedness means. He has his limits. One of these is a dependence upon Heading so entire and so general th"' one can say with confidence, "Such a? 1 the officer is, so are his men." But within these limits he is the finest fighting material I know. Contented, untiring, unalarmed by danger (for in the modern sense he has no "nerves"); satisfied with the plainest food; every day the same. The simplest, kindliest of men. OVERRATED GRAND DUKE. As for the high commands, they are safe in the hands of four generals all of same type —the scientific, nonspectacular, leave - nothing-to-chance type. Th e departure of the Grand Duke' merely proved the truth that no man is a necessity. He was, for reasons which are not understood out here, credited in England with qualities that he did not possess. His was a personality about whic-h very little was known, around which, therefore. legends could easily be spun. He served as an impressive figurehead, and the Russians are an impressionable race. In his huge figure and stern physiognomy they read firmness —that firmness which the Russian character too often lacks. T-hey knew he was honest, "A rich man,'' they argue 1 in their sly, Slavonic, fashion of re ■■•:

soiling, "has no need to bo otherwise." They believed that, being a Grand Duke, he would not allow squabbling among generals such as marred the Kussian effort in the war

against Japan. And what of the nation behind the Army? How hav e fifteen months of war affected it? Has its spirit been cast down by the long six months' retirement? Does it show any signs of wearying in tire struggle? WORSE THAN BEASTS. So far as I can judge, the resolve that the Germans must be soundly beaten is more grimly stubborn than it was a year ago. They are not "good -haters," the Russians, any more t-han Ave are. They are too easygoing. We have too strong a fear of making ourselves ridiculous by melodramatics. But German methods have been too much for us both: We do

not even yet "hate" the race of Bodies. But we do feel) towards them as we should towards unpleasant, wil fully savage animals, if there wcr< any such. Of course there are not. In the Petrograd "Zoo" there is a notice to this effect:

"The animals ask you not to speak

of Germans as 'animals.' "Animals only kill when they are in need of food. They do not slaughter or mangle for pleasure. " A necessary reminder, and an instructive straw to show how Russian sentiment blows. It is upon the good will of the town populations of Russia that the future of Germans in this country mainly depends. These town populations will neither forget nor forgive very soon the hardships which they are ing, apart from the general misery of wa. In all quarters of this city long lines of people wait outside shops for their turn to buy small quantities of necessary food. Almost every day my servant tells me I must do without something. Last week it was meat. Yesterday it was sugar. This morning it is butter. Last month there was a scarcity of flour.

LITTLE TRIALS. Of small inconveniences there are many. We pay more for our daily newspapers, six copecks (lid) instead of five copecks (lid) as before. Paper of all kinds is scarce, and the Finns have not increased their popularity by raising the price of wood pulp. Many shops cannot wrap up purchases as usual. You must carry them homo uncovered or in your handkerchief. Shop- > keepers who have wrapping paper are | often short of string. These arc minor j troubles, and if it be taken in the right spirit, so is the overcrowding of the street-cars. There is no service of j taxicabs here, nor even of closed j horse-cabs. One must either drive' r.i j

a slow jog-trot, in what an American friend of mine calls "a low-necked hack," the coldest vehicle imaginable, or travel by swift, weft-lighted electric car. Just now both are difficult. In these conditions the essential good-nature of the Russian character shines out like a diamond in a midden.

There is no irritation or bitterness. None but a very good-natured race would tolerate the "stamps" which have been issued (only, it is said, to be withdrawn immediately) to meet the lack of small change; One remedy would have been to strike tokens; another, to announce that after a eer tain time no coins of a date earlier than, say, 1910. would be legal tender. That weuM bring the small change out with a rush. The date could be extended and 'extended, until the foolish panic, ceased. FIRM AS A ROCK. The method adopted -vvas to issue thick paper stamps, without gum'- on th e backs. These were awkward to keep and -handle, and they get fifthily soiled. Yet no one grumbles other than sarcastically. Everyone treats them as a joke. That is the Russian way. Until they are roused those are the most enduring people in the world. When they ar 0 roused ....

i And roused they very nearly wore ja good many of them beginning i< I

"see rod'' over the dismissal of the Duma. Happily they wore quieted, and with good management, will

avoidance of provocation, they will re main quiet. They are willing enough if the war is conducted with energy

and if thcv are not caused unnecessary

suffering by incompetence in high places, to postpone the settlement of ' home affairs until the war is over. For although tbey feel sore and angry against many persons in high places, they detest the Germans far more. Since I came here I have seen Russia's resentment against those who forced the war upon her harden \nio rock. She has no illusions now about its being soon over. Sbe knows the •enemy can still offer a long and stubborn resistance. In the Nbvoe Vremya to-day there is an article of warning against the absurdly hopeful "at tritio" fantasies of the Maude-Bol-loc school. "We must beat the enemy," says the writer, "by being stronger than he is, not by waiting for him to get weak." That is the spirit of Russia after fifteen montbs of war.