"NOT BEGUN TO FIGHT."

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1915, Page 8

"NOT BEGUN TO FIGHT."

JtUSSLVti Itt'OftCIANiSATIOK. NEW MINISTER FOB WAR, Russia lias found it necessary to make certain changes in her administration with a view to carrying on the war with greater efficiency, writes a London correspondent. The Tsar has issued an Imperial Rescript to his people in which he says:— "From all parts of the country I have received appeals testifying to the firm determination of the Russian peoples to devote the.* Ureugtli to the work of equipping i!:<? army. I derive from this national unanimity the unshaken assurance of a brilliant'future. But surmounting growing dlffim-.Jties and parrying the vicissitudes v.Jj.;«i are inevitable' in war, let us fAroigi'wc in our hearts the resolution to carry on tie (struggle, with the help of God, t-j tW cc-mpletc triumph of the Russian »ijs>-. IV. enemy must be crushed, for vciihout that peace is impossible. "With firm faith w the inexhaustible strength of Russia .1 r.»t'.eipate that the Governmental and public institutions, Russian industry and all the faithful sons of ideas and dasses, will work together in harmony to satisfy the needs of our valiant army. This is the only and, henceforth, the national problem to which must be directed all the thoughts of united Russia, invincible in her unity."

CHANGE NOT UNEXPECTED. Tlk removal of General SukhomlinolT from the Ministry of War was not unexpected. That lie was hard working- and energic he showed in the war with Japan, and his wonderful capacity for grouping unpleasant facts attractively and persuading his hearers saved the army for some years from political interference in the chambers. About three years ago the opposition to General Sukhomlinoff in the Duma and the press became so powerful that his colleague, General Polivanoff, who was then Under-Secretary for War, was expected to succeed him on grounds of real merit. General Polivanoff's qualifications were recognised by all who were competent to form an opinion, and during ten days while General Sukhomlinoff was absent on a visit to the Tsar in Lividia, it was generally aosivincd that arrangements were being made for the change, which has been effected.

FINE RUSSIAN CAVALRY. It is interesting, in view of all we still expect of llic Russian soldier, to hear an unbiassed appreciation of his character. Colonel Robert AlcConniok, of the United States Army, son of a former Ambassador to Petrograd, and A.D.C. to the Governor of Illinois, has spent a couple of months with the Russian Army, and lie writes:— "What I hare seen of tiu Russian cavalry lends confirmation to the story of unbroken successes in modern conflicts recounted by officers of all branches of the service. At the beginning of the Galician campaign the Russians were almost invariably successful in cavalry encounters. Of their opponents the Russians speak highly only of the Hungarians. The Austrians they regard as poor, and the Prussian as worst of all.

PRAISE FOR THE INFANTRY. "The Russian infantryman is the most splendid physical specimen of the war. Owing to her immense population, Russia has not resorted to universal conscription. Only the best and strongest are chosen. The Russian soldier is very mucli bigger and very much more athletic than the English Tommy, mainly, I believe, because the bulk.of the Rus'sian population is agricultural, while the English is manufacturing. "I have often read of the Russian soldier as being clumsy. Nothing could he further from the truth. While at the front I was in a state of continual admiration over the agility and grace of the soldiers' movements. Perhaps our ideas of Russian soldiers' clumsiness come from the pictures of the high boots they wear. They look heavy, but are not.

"There are two great generalities which overshadow all details. The first is that war found the Russian Army in course of reorganisation—a process which lias been continuing through the war. The losses of battle are easily refilled by the enormous population, and the army is getting better as the war goes on.

"Second, the war is enormously popular. Eye-witnesses have described tlie extraordinary scenes which marked its outbreak. 1 have seen the calm, determined attitude of the. soldiers in the ranks. The most severe actions of the war have been along this front, the losses on both sides have far excaeded those of any war in history, and yet Russia, in the words of our greatest sea fighter, who was also an admiral in the Russian fleet, 'has not begun to fight.'"