GENERAL ALEXIEFF.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 16, 20 January 1916, Page 2

GENERAL ALEXIEFF.

RUSSIAN CHIEF OF STAFF. A correspondent of the London Times, writing- from the Eussian Headquarters on November 9th, says:' —

-Travelling "between Headquarters and the armies in the field, one meets many officers fresh from the trenches and with months of active service at various points of the front. At Headquarters one obtains a concentrated impression of what the army thinks. A comparison of the Headquarters version with individual conversations enables one within a few days to obtain a fairly accurate notion of how the army Iboks on the events occurring within and without the sphere of military operations.

TII3 most important point is what the army thinks about its new chiefs, and particularly about the soldier who is at present the new chief of staff to the supreme ge'neralissimo. Without a single dissentient voice the Czar's army acclaims the choice which fell upon General Alexieff. It could not well be otherwise. He is a soldier in the fullest and truest sense of the word. The son of a humble sergeant, he has risen by sheer merit to the highest post in the Czar's armies. Geerfral. Alexieff shows his greatness not only by his general grasp in matters of statecraft as well as in strategy, but also by the immutable calm and simplicity which never forsake him. The severest ordeals that have befallen any man during the war have been borne by him unflinchingly. As Chief of Staff in General Ivanoff's group, and then as Commander inChief of the north-westt'rn group, where he had under his direct command nine out of twelve of the Russian armies, he was directly concerned in the carrying out of the invasion of GaTicia and afterwards in the retreat from Warsaw, which, in his own words, was "the roost sanguinary episode of this war." Lastly, as chief of the Headquarters Staff, he led the amies to safety from Yilna.

Despite his heavy responsibilities and the exalted rank that has fallen ►o his lot, GV'neral Alexieff remains absolutely unchanged. I had not seen Mm for over eleven years, and was flighted to find that he had not aged -nd that he retained all the simplicity Mid charm of manner which distinguished him when he was a professor i the Russian Staff Academy. Mr conversations with officers on H ie journey had suggested several topics which proved to be touchstones of the entire unity of thought bet ween th e combatants and the Chief of Staff. Nothing has been so much deplored by the army and the nation as the inv pitiable veil of mystery that prevents an knowledge of what the individuals composing the army have done raK doing. This is to be changed, uYou are quite right,"' he told m> -This policy of anonymity is to a ]argc .extent unjustifiable. A hundred ij |Ve things could be safely disceos,V without giving the enemy any. information that they do not ahead, vOS , es < We are unnecessary depih , d in the army of a precious bond of nn ion with the nation."