WELLINGTON NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 1 May 1915, Page 6

WELLINGTON NOTES.

SIBERIAN WHEAT. (From Our Own Corespondent). Wellington. Tlmrsd... . The significance of an item of nc.vs issued from the Prime Minister's OHiee the other day seems to have escaped general attention. Mr. Massey told the reporters that he had received the following communication from Mr. C'lii'Lon, the Xew Zealand Agent on the We.it Coast of America: ''lt is observed here that some 350,000 tons of wheat are said to lift in course of arrival at Vladivostok; for shipment to 'Europe. ft is said that a largo number of British ships have arrived at that port via. the Tari-.ma Canal, and that there will be delays experienced in loading,' as there are but few facilities there for dealing with such cargoes, and temporary wharves and moorings are being constructed."

Mr. Clifton cabled from San Francisco, and the Prime Minister is confident that, he would not have troubled to repeat a mere rumor. There is good ground for asuniing, therefore, that during the next few months the British market will receive a great rihuiy bushels of Siberian wheat, for which the sole outlet previously has been the rather precarious route from Archangel through the Arctic Ocean. Russian wheat is shipped under ordinary conditions through the Baltic and the Black Sea, and the failure of supplies from those quarters since the outbreak of the war has been a very important factor in raising the price, of flour and of bread all over the Empire. If the Russian Government has now found it possible to transport huge quantities of wheat to the Pacific coast by means of the trans-Siberian railway, the position will be relieveA materially, and even New Zealand may feel the benefit.

MAGNITUDE OF OPERATIONS. This items of news and others tlmt could be cited within official circles in Wellington, give some idea of the magnitude of the operations the Imperial Government has undertaken in connection with the war. The transportation of 350,000 tons of wheat from the Siberian coast across the Pacific and the Atlantic to the United Kingdom would necessitate the use of a mighty armada of cargo-carriers, and "private enterprise" would hardly be able to undertake the job under present conditions. The Imperial Government as Mr. Winston Churchill stated some months ago, lias commandeered one-fifth of the shipping of the Empire, or roughly one-tenth of the shipping of the world, for use as auxiliary cruisers, transports, supply ships, etc. Some part of that fleet will have been sent to Vladivostock. The fact that a ship lias been commandeered does not mean necessarily that it is removed entirely from the control of its owners, who may simply receive instructions as to the service it is to perform. There have been ships in Wellington recently other than transports with names painted over and bearing instead letters and numbers that would be understood by ollicers of a British warship. On those ships it has been possible to meet men who knew something of Mr. Graeme Thomson, the "greatest transport officer since Noah." Who is .Mr. Thomson? A year ago" he was nobody in particular. To-day he is the man who directs, under the (Admiralty, the movements of some 1200 British ships with the band of genius. He is one of the great men of the war, though the Empire scarcely knows his name.

THE DIFFERENCE. if you would avoid a perilous solecism when you visit Trentham camp yon must master the difference between a soldier and a recruit. A soldier is a man who knows when to salute his superior officer. A mere recruit salutes on every possible occasion, and earns no credit for his conscientiousness, since the probably weary officer must acknowledge the uplifted hand. A soldier, learned in the ways of war, performs the manifold tasks of his daily training, thoroughly but without emotion, while the recruit is apt to ooze enthusiasm. The recruit singe ''lt's a Long way to Tippevary" in public, the soldier regarding him meanwhile witli mixed amusement and compassion. There, are other tests that may be applied with more or less certainty, but if you want to be quite sure, ascertain if your man is a "fifth" or a "sixth." For he of the Fifth Reinforcements has been in camp several weeks, and he is a soldier and feels like it; while lie of the Sixth lias scarcely got the creases out of Ms new -uniform, and he is a recruit and is apt to be made to feel like it. A wholesome, inspiriting place is Trentham camp, where social distinctions count for nothing and soldierly knowledge and experience count for so much. It is better to be a soldier than a recruit, bul. then the recruit of to-day need not worry, for he will be the soldier of to-morrow, and there are whole regiments of recruits—laggards, some of them—to come after him and follow painfully the paths he has trod. If he needed' a little consolation occasionally, he might find it in the reflection that the Trentham soldier of to-day will be made to feel very recruitish indeed when he meets the* seasoned veterans of the main Expeditionary Force.